


Love at First Set

by QJK13



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Background Gay Relationship, Background Poly, Beach Volleyball, Bisexual Azumane Asahi, Bisexual Sugawara Koushi, Canon Compliant, Cute Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Freak Twins, Gay Sawamura Daichi, I've been a coach for 7 years and I've played for 20, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Light Angst, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Movie Night, Multi, Oblivious Ushijima Wakatoshi, Panic Attacks, Pining Ushijima Wakatoshi, Protective Karasuno Volleyball Club, Protective Siblings, Protective Sugawara Koushi, Protective Tendou Satori, Protective Ushijima Wakatoshi, Sexual Assault, Shiratorizawa, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Tendou Satori is a Good Bro, Threesome - F/M/M, Twins, Volleyball, Volleyball Dorks & Nerds, Volleyball Dorks in Love, Volleyball is my Sport, bisexual tendou satori, competitive siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:55:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24974941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QJK13/pseuds/QJK13
Summary: "Mizuki why are the boys pointing at you?" Yuka Lee asked, pausing midway through her approach behind the setter.“She is good and a setter.” Jin whined.“She’s better than good.” Wakatoshi stated the others who had played last night nodded.“Eh! Was that a compliment Wakatoshi?” Tendou spun on him, crowing. “He’s finally growing up!” A few of the boys laughed at Tendou’s cooing over the Ace.“She can go toe to toe with you,” Semi said watching the girl fake a jump set only to turn with it and slam it down in a spike.“What do you mean by that?” Jin asked.She nodded a few times as the coach talked to her. “You are about to see.” Taichi said, clapping the other 3rd year on the shoulder as she walked toward the boys court.Ushijima squared up with her stepping onto the other side of the net, Tendo and Tsutomu taking their places at the net to block for her.“Again?” She laughed as they took their positions from the night before. His eyes narrowed at hers as he focused, she met his glare head on smirking at him. “Good luck Hotshot,” she teased.“Ushiwaka, go easy on her.” The boys laughed.“Why would I do that?” He asked.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Original Female Character(s), Azumane Asahi/Tendou Satori, Azumane Asahi/Tendou Satori/Original Female Character(s), Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tendou Satori/Original Female Character(s), Ushijima Wakatoshi/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 76





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I'm trying out a new story, this one honestly interests me a ton, as a volleyball player, coach and as a setter. I decided to have some fun and start a story in the Haikyuu universe since it is a game I understand so well (which also makes the Anime/Manga frustrating since they, don't play with the correct rules in some cases.) Also if you have any questions about what things are or how the game is played let me know I'm happy to help. I swear I understand the rules and strategies of the game better than the actual writers which is both frustrating and impressive since they did put a lot of thought into to the gameplay.

“Ahh!” Suga cried out, randomly in the middle of serving practice as he missed his serve recoiling as he stared at his forearm. He hissed that had hurt.

Daichi narrowed his gaze at his grey haired teammate who jogged over to his bag pulling out his phone, typing into it quickly before putting it away again, and rejoining the serving practice. Every once in a while Suga would hiss and shake his hand or rub his forearm.

\--------

She hissed her forearms stinging as she rolled and popping up from her place on the ground. “Tendo!” She called as the ball arched up from behind him as he landed.

\--------

Not even 10 minutes ago she had just been walking through the gym at her new school when in the act of deflecting a wayward volleyball she’d dropped her bag causing her volleyball shoes to spill out. At that moment a tall redhead, a good half foot taller than her popped up in front of her, “You wanna play?” he asked. Her heart rate shot through the roof as she braced to bolt.

“Oy Tendo stop being creepy, that’s not how you ask someone to join.” a sandy haired team member yelled at him perfectly aiming a ball into the red head’s back, he was only a few inches taller than her. She’d quickly learn he was called Eita, “Sorry about that, we are down a player and we wanted to play a 4 on 4 game but we need one more person. Would you like to join us?” she thought about it for a moment before she smiled, volleyball on a court, she could do that.

“Sure, my brother isn’t done with his practice for a bit.” She picked up her phone typing a quick message to Koshi to get her from the gym when he arrived.

“What position do you play?” Tendo asked taking lanky steps around her trying to size up the girl with flowing waves of thick light grey hair and piercing hazel eyes. He couldn’t get a read, did she know what she’d just stepped into?

“Setter.” She answered, her eyes soft focusing on the events around her, a tall broad shouldered man was peppering with a hyper focused boy with a black bowl cut, the sandy haired boy setting between them. The kid with a bowl cut was trying his hardest to keep up with what looked like maybe a 50% hit from the tall olive brown haired man.

“Why haven’t we seen you here before miss Setter.”

“It’s Sugawara Mizuki, but my teammates normally call me Miz. I just moved back last month. I've been living in America for the last 7 years.”

“Ohhh?” Tendo circled her as she tamed her hair into a high ponytail, her long hair still brushing the top of her shoulders even with it being pulled to the highest point on the back of her head. 

Two libero’s stayed warm while what looked to her like a middle spiked at them, alternating the passer each time his feet adjusting so he could aim directly where he wanted. She plugged in her headphones ignoring the redhead’s constant questioning, much to his annoyance, as she stripped down to her shorts not bothering with knee pads, it had been years since she’d used them, years of playing on the beach had taught her they only got in the way. She jogged around the gym a few times, each time faster than the previous. She felt a steely gaze on her, she turned her hazel eyes locking with olive, her eyebrow quirking upwards in mild interest before she broke eye contact and grabbed a ball. She got in a few touches, it really hadn’t been that long since she’d touched a ball. She watched the others practice through her soft focus though having positioned herself in the back corner to judge the depth and placements of the boys she was about to play with. She stepped to the attack line crouching down to watch the approaches of each of the players. Analyzing them, the tall boy with burnt orange hair prefered 6,3,2. The olive haired man was a lefty and thus could hit a true 9,3,2. The weird red head was strange and hit his best on a 7,3,1. The black haired child was quite remarkable where any thing in the 1,2-1,4 and 2,2-2,3 range he could hit as long as it was below a 4 at the end but his favorite place she could tell was a hanging set that rested in the middle of the 1’s place on the 3.5, 2 marks. She even watched the liberos the older of the two loved a classic 6,5,5 while the other prefered a 6,7,6. She was ready.

She ended up on the team with Tendo Satori who was functioning as their middle, the black haired kid with the bowl cut, Tsutomu Goshiki their outside, and the current team’s Libero, Hayato Yamagata. 

Across the net stood the imposing form of who she know knew to be Ushijima Wakatoshi a crushing outside or opposite hitter, Eita Semi the sandy haired boy who’d yelled at Tendo for her, Taichi Kawanishi who she’d been correct in her guess that he was a middle, and Kai Akakura the first year libero.

This should be interesting. “Any house rules I should know about?” She asked Eita. 

He looked at her confused. “House rules?”

“Some places have specific four on four rules, no dinks, setter’s are back row, no short serves, short court… any of those apply?” She asked, using the heel of her hand to crack her knuckles, which in turn cracked loudly. Tendo watched her, his head tilted back and to the side as he observed her with interest. 

“No we don’t have any of those rules, everything goes, and everyone goes hard. We’ll go easy on you though don’t worry.” Eita smiled, she knew he meant well, but she couldn’t help the glee she suddenly felt knowing he was underestimating her.

“Speak for yourself Eita.” A deep voice cut through. “This was your idea, I’m not holding back.” 

All the eyes turned on the olive haired man. “Wakatoshi-kun” Eita started to try and talk the Ace down.

A scoff interrupted him “Whatever Hotshot,” Mizuki rolled her eyes, cracking her shoulders and neck. Tsutomu gulped feeling the tension in the air thicken palpably at her words. She had stepped into his court and he wasn’t going to underestimate her, smart.

Tsutomu was the first up to serve, he had to serve then book it to the net, they had decided Mizuki was better suited on defense than for blocking. She had shrugged noncommittally going along with it, but wanted to try blocking at some point, ‘yea maybe when Ushijima wasn’t hitting’ Tsutomu thought. They watched her, still not sure how to treat her, they had yet to see her pass, set, hit, block or serve, but she seemed confident in an eerily calm way. The first year really wasn’t sure what was about to happen but he served anyway. First team to 25 was the winner. And he was sure that that probably wasn’t going to be them. He lifted the ball into the air aiming for the gap between Taichi and Kai. Ushijima was on the outside since Eita was occupying the right front of the court. He contacted the ball, a perfect float. It had just enough speed on it that it didn’t start moving til it crossed the net. He was running to the net, when he was caught off guard his perfect aim for the seam was intercepted by Wakatoshi’s hands in a set to Eita. He really wasn’t going to take it easy at all, and Tsutomu was already late for the block. He raced toward the net but the set was already in the air, and Tsutomu was late, half a second late, Wakatoshi had a perfect shot straight down the line and at a terrifying angle, an angle everyone on the court knew he could hit, and hit with force. Yamagata gulped, preparing to dive in whatever general direction it looked like Ushijima might hit. Eita had given him a perfect toss and he was cranking hard, at 90% of his full power. 

What happened next stunned everyone on the court except for Mizuki. Grey flashed forward, hands and forearms above her head. The ball flew down towards her, she watched it contact with her forearms, as she dropped back to control the sheer force, her upper body arching backward over her heels as her shoulder blades hit the floor, her legs planted wide allowing for the overhead receive. Pain ripped up her forearms, but it truly wasn’t anything new to the girl. She hissed her forearms stinging as she rolled and popping up from her place on the ground. “Tendo!” She called as the ball arched up from behind him as he landed. She darted towards the outside across the court from him. He set her the ball, a high generic outside, 1,3,3 at a 3rd tempo. Damn kid wanted her to get blocked. She could jump, but speed was her advantage and with a 3rd tempo, she suddenly had 4 hands in front of her. No other choice, she was facing the line, Eita was right there and Akakura was covering the seam and with her short height and that set their court was almost completely covered, almost. She twisted her elbow, her thumb dropping as she cranked her body away from the ball, her fingers snapping to her wrist. The ball turned sharply whistling down the net on the other side landing cleanly in just 2 feet in the court and 2 feet off the net. She landed and rolled her eyes at the tall olive brown haired boy, walking away from the net “Kiraly hits harder than you.” He hadn’t been interested before. But in less than 5 seconds he suddenly wanted to know everything about the grey haired girl in front of him. 

They all stood stunned staring at her as she jogged back to her starting point but she was at the net this time not at the attack line, “Miz?” Tendo asked.

“Hmm?”

“What was that?”

She just smiled, as a beeping phone went off in her bag. Ahh he’d felt it too. “I’ve played before.” She shrugged. “Serve it up Tsutomu, I’ll take the block, for the first one.” She said, stepping up to the net, already adjusting to the weakness that had led to her cut shot and save. “Tendo.” He looked at her as the kid behind them served “Never give me a tempo 3 again.” Ushijima smiled, she was a force to be reckoned with. What she lacked in height she made up for in her intelligence. He suddenly realized he was going up against a very difficult opponent. A voice rang in the back of his head. ‘You can hit it as hard as you want, but if there is something between the ball and the floor it will never go down.’ All of a sudden having her and Tendo on the same team didn’t seem very fair.

21-25 was the final score. She’d tooled him, as they landed he stared down at her as she smirked up at him. Tendo had sent the ball way too close to the net. He had her completely shut down, until she’d smiled, in that instance he knew he had to yank his hands back but it was to late, he’d committed, he couldn’t get them back in time and she used that to her full advantage, she pressed the ball into his arms and then with the flick of her wrist had thrown the ball off his hand into the attena, the ball was out before he could react. He held out his hand under the net “Ushijima Wakatoshi.” She took it.

“Sugawara Mizuki.” She responded.

“What did you mean earlier? About Kiraly?”

“Exactly what you’re thinking it meant.”

“Karch Kiraly?” He asked, needing to be certain.

She smiled and nodded. “I played with him on the beaches in California, and at National camps in the States. Him and Dalhausser would never ease up when we played.”

“Hmm” he nodded his head once. It explained her attitude at the beginning of the game when his declaration hadn’t even phased her. She was used to that. The others watched their interaction completely miffed, they had never seen Ushijima actually try to carry a conversation with anyone of the opposite sex so this was new to them. Even girls he’d been interested in he never talked to. “Would you set a few for me?” He asked. She nodded stepping under the net so she was next to him, her arm brushing against his as she walked to the target. He stood still for a moment, her skin was damp with moisture but still soft he felt his arm tingle where her skin had met his.

“Want us to block?” Tendo asked Ushijima just nodded, Taichi joined Tendo. Eita stepped to the other side as Yamagata stepped under. Eita, and Tsutomu took turns serving at the two Liberos while she set, after each one she watched closely analyzing.

Suddenly her head tilted and she put a hand up telling the servers to stop, she beckoned Ushijima over. “You know my brother told me about this weird quick his team has, and I kinda want to try it out.” Ushijima raised an eyebrow at her smile, it sent chills down his spine, she was smart, powerful, agile and just insane enough to make it all work. She was a terrifying combination. 

He couldn’t help but agree a little bit with Tendo’s grumbled from the other side of the net when he’d get over both blockers or fake Tendo out “Damned Mad-Scientist”, “Troublesome Evil-Genius”, “Annoying Freak-Setter”. Tendo was smart enough to know a fair amount of his play was influenced by her sets at the moment, but they were also some of the easiest to hit sets he’d ever gotten.

“Ok,” he said. 

“I need you to do one thing first.” He nodded looking down at her. “I need you to approach and jump at 100%. Once without the ball though. I need to know the coordinate.” He nodded again, still not saying anything.

“Umm Miz?” Goshiki asked, she turned to face him. “What do you mean by coordinates?”

“Every spike has a coordinate. And everyone has coordinates they like to hit best from, it's a simple grid system that is set above every net. Like you, your favorite coordinate from what I can tell is 1.5,3.5,2 she called him to the other side “go ahead and hit this one.” Ushijima watched as the young outside trotted over. She called for Eita to serve. And then she set him and suddenly he got it. It was exactly where he naturally wanted to approach on the outside two feet off and the ball was in the perfect spot for him to hit. He landed the ball slamming into the floor, it had felt better than any spike he’d ever done before. All eyes slowly turned to her.

“Still playing?” A voice called from across the gym, everyone turned to see Mizuki’s male doppelgänger standing in the door wearing a black jacket and black sweatpants.

“Hey Kōshi,” She smiled, “Ok two more then I’m out.” She said turning to watch the Ace leap uninhibited to where he ideally would love to hit from everytime. She had been right; he could jump much higher when he wasn’t worried about the setter. She smiled as he landed, “Got it. Take off right after the libero passes. Kai, Yamagata pass at a 1st tempo.” She instructed. Kōshi had sat down next to her bag packing it up a bit while he waited. He always loved watching his twin set, she really was a phenom, he’d gotten most of his training from her, he was nowhere near her level but he loved watching her work and instructing and damn could she set. He watched the blonde serve, and just as she had called as soon as the passer was passing Ushijima was approaching and with incredible power, she had gotten exactly what she wanted: a 1st tempo pass and a spiker already in the air waiting. 9.25,4.25,2.5. He was mid swing when his hand connected with the ball, over the blockers crushing it into the ground with incredible force, the ball bouncing up nearly to the ceiling. The whole gym went dead quiet. Koshi’s eyes were wide, she’d managed to, from just his description, recreate the freak quick his team had in their arsenal. 

“Dang Toshi, no need to use 100% of your force,” Tendo laughed.

“It wasn’t” Ushijima and Mizuki said at the same time.

“Ehhh?” Tendo cried out saying exactly what everyone else was thinking.

“It was just the perfect set.” Ushijima said, staring at the light grey haired girl.

“Ok one more. Regular 1st tempo?” Miz looked back at him, he nodded, he was really enjoying these sets, she had his number dialed in, she was actively trying to set him to his advantage, they were different than any other sets he’s ever come across. This one he cranked up the power, what was possible with this set and his maximum power? The serve came over he waited to be in line with the ball, just chasing it to her hands, and he leapt, again the ball was in his hand perfectly. The ball slammed into the ground before fleeing into the rafters of the tall gym, getting stuck in the bleachers of the second level. Tendo must have realized what he was about to do because when he landed he noticed Tendo had his hand on the back of Taichi’s shirt, holding him down stopping him from jumping. It probably was the safe bet, his last spike at 70% had looked like a 100%, this one was harder than he’d ever hit before.

“Thank you.” He said inclining his head to Mizuki. 

“Not a problem. Let me know if you ever want to do it again.” She smiled, walking over to her brother ruffling his hair. He stood up grabbing her wrist and turning it to look at the spot where she’d received his spike earlier. He weirdly looked familiar, she slipped off her court shoes when he said something that made her laugh as she shoved him, pulling her track pants back on her leg was half way in the second leg when he bumped her causing her to start hopping to stay upright, she retaliated by throwing one of her slides at him. Before putting her foot in the other.

“What’s the best way to contact you?” Ushijima asked, every other third year groaned behind him putting a hand over their faces, of course the blunt bastard had no idea how to smoothly ask for a girls number. 

She laughed. “I’m sure you’ll see me around.” She said with a smile and left. She wasn’t ready for that yet, she still had a lot of things to sort out. It was why she’d moved back. At the moment she couldn’t do plans.

He watched as she chatted with her brother as she left both of them animated and laughing. He felt self conscious all of a sudden, like he didn’t know what to do with his limbs and his heart was beating unusually quick. All of a sudden the grey hair boy brandished the flat she’d thrown at him and took off out of the gym, she raced out after him chasing him down not seeming to care that she only had one shoe on.

“Ohhh?” Tendō popped up in front of him as they watched Mizuki leave “Could it be Toshi?” The other stared at the red head. “Do you finally find a girl interesting?” Was that this feeling? He looked down where she’d brushed against him, the slight tingle flickered across his skin at the memory.

“She’s intriguing.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments!!! I loved reading and replying to all of them!!!

Chapter 2

He had been out for his morning jog, it was deserted like normal, people were rarely out this early in the morning and he loved it, it was just him and the road and however far or fast he wanted to go. It was cool in the morning even though it was late August, best time to go for a run, the air was fresh and brisk in his lungs as he ran. He was observing his long road ahead when a body bounded out from around a corner and got half a block before they exploded upwards to grip a high tree branch hanging out over the sidewalk. He rolled his eyes about to focus back into his normal zone when his eyes narrowed at the form with a hat and a light baggy sweatshirt and shorts a few blocks up. They were using the tree branch as a pull up bar? The side of his lip curved up, interesting, he’d never thought of adding random bouts of other conditioning into his jogs. He continued to jog watching them pull ups, toe touches up to the branch. Another sound caught his attention, it hadn't seemed to phase the other person’s attention. Their body dropping back from the tree, legs hooked around the branch, as she curled up, he could definitely learn a thing or two from her training regiment.

Those eyes, piercing, challenging and playful were locked onto the other silver haired sibling who had just jogged around the corner out of breath, the back of his jacket sparked his interest again, Karasuno Volleyball Club. It was Mizuki out for a run this early, and she had obviously dragged him along.

“Mi-cha!” He yelled, breathing hard, “Slow down!”

The figure tumbled out of the tree and jogged back to him, with an odd amount of grace that he hadn’t expected. “Why little bro? Are you tired?” She mocked teasingly, he still was begrudgingly jogging keeping up with the now side shuffling girl, who obviously had unstoppable energy compared to him.

“Ugh!” He groaned “Why do you remind me so much of Hinata! So much energy, it's 6:15 in the morning!”

Ushijima slowed his pace, wanting to watch her a little longer. She laughed “I don’t know if that’s supposed to be a compliment or not.” He didn’t see it, she had a basis to her confidence and the drive to back it up, he couldn’t compare the energy level though which was the current comparison.

“It is” the other boy stopped to catch his breath, she didn’t though continuing to shuffle around him, “He’s the one with the freak quick.” She hummed in response. “Which by the way, don’t tell my team this, but you got it right on the first try with Ushijima last night,” she nodded shrugging. ‘That had been the freak quick?’ he thought, slowly getting closer. “And it was way more terrifying than anytime I’ve seen Kageyama and Hinata do it.” She was bouncing around the slightly taller sibling. 

Her eyes spun to lock with his, she waved, he looked at the energetic girl, and nodded to her continuing to move. She continued to bounce around, dragging her grumbling grumpy male counterpart down the street. He glanced over his shoulder when the mention of helping with his morning and afternoon practice was brought up, and she was in the air in an instant, “Let's go then! It’ll be the last time I can till the girls season is over.” She bounced the pom ball on her hat bouncing with her. He chuckled as she bolted off past him at remarkable speed.

Kōshi jogged after her, “Why did I say that?” He grumbled from behind him not able to keep up with her so he resorted to yelling after her. “Mi-cha slow down!”

“Keep up,” she shot right back, turning mid step to run backwards. 

“We’ve been out here for the last 30 minutes and you keep getting faster.” She laughed, turning down a side street.

“No you keep getting slower.”

“Actually, I don’t.” He growled under his breath with an eerie certainty, before turning down the same street as his sister “Mi-cha!! That’s the wrong way!”

“Well then run faster and show me where I’m supposed to be going.”

“You’re unbelievable!”

Ushijima acted as though he couldn’t hear the twins bickered yelling as he ran, but either way the state of the events that morning were highly entertaining especially for the standards of his normal morning jog.

\--

He sat at the breakfast table in the cafeteria watching the clock tick, it was like clockwork 8:08 Tendō walked in and sat next to him.

“How’s your morning going?” Tendō asked after grabbing a tray and sitting next to him. “ Have a good morning jog?”

He nodded to his roommate “It was different,”

Tendō looked at him; it was a jog, no one else was ever out that early. “How so?” He prodded.

“The girl and her brother from practice last night were out running too. She’s- “ he stopped to think of the word that fit. “Eccentric.” He settled on that as an all encompassing term. 

Tendō laughed “What happened” he asked. What had happened, she was definitely unconventional, but he never would have gone to a word normally intended for those who were weird and off, that was Wakatoshi though, that may have not been the right term.

“She was out for a run with her brother, which looked more like a puppy bouncing down the street while her brother yelled after her.”

“So they were yelling at each other while out for a run?” 

“I’d stay bickering like they were last night.”

Tendō was quiet as he watched his friend. “I don’t think that eccentric is quite the term you meant, I think you’re more around the grounds of high-spirited, playful and scintillating, especially since she has caught your eye.

“I hear we have a new girl moving into class 3 today,” Jin commented to the others as he sat down. “She’s gonna play for the girls volleyball team. Kanaka is excited, I guess she’s good.”

“Oh a new girl?” Tendō teased.

“Yea, she transferred a month ago and they are moving her up in classes, I guess her transcripts got lost in the overseas move and transfer so it's taking some time to find the right class for her.” Jin said. “I wonder if she’s cute.” He wondered out loud, “I wonder if she’ll watch us practice and want lessons. Wouldn’t that be cute, the new girl asking us for lessons!” Jin rambled his imagination carrying him away. 

Tendō locked eyes with Wakatoshi knowing they were thinking the same thing, Mizuki would wipe the floor with Jin in a volleyball game. Jin continued to ramble about girls and how he wanted a girlfriend for nationals so they could come cheer him on.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself.” Ushijima stated. 

“Aww Ushijima we will be though.” Jin complained. Ushijima just gave him the same stare, he had no doubt that they would get there. “You’re no fun, fine, when we work hard and get to nationals, I want a girlfriend to come and support me and cheer for me.” 

“That’s not what I meant, we will be at Nationals, but to have a girlfriend you need to talk to a girl first” Jin froze his face deadpaning of course that’s what he’d meant. Tendō snorted laughing at the abrasiveness of his comment to Jin. Ushijima had always been unwaveringly confident that they were going back to Nationals, he also knew the teams they would have to face to get there would be tough, but that never stopped him. The other two boys did have to admit that having someone who was there for you, it was tempting. Ushijima and Tendō had thought of that in the past, having a significant person in their life who was there for them would be nice, especially since they both lived in the dorms away from home to attend the Academy. Ushijima couldn’t help it. His immediate mental image went to Mizuki, she understood the game, she loved the game, and he was intrigued by her, she was just as competitive as he was that was for sure. He wanted to know more.

“You’re thinking about her aren’t you,” Tendo teased. Ushijima glared at him causing the lanky redhead to chuckle knowing he was right. They packed up their bags and threw away the trash on their trays before walking down the halls to their classroom.

Jin peaked in scanning the seats before frowning, “Woah, Sensei rearranged the tables. Aww, No one new yet.” He pouted walking to his seat.

Ushijima walked in glancing at the new chart finding his new seat. He was now in seat 18 of now 21 instead of 17. Tendo found his seat just in front of him without looking at the chart. Ushijima scanned the chart the teacher had put up on the board more thoroughly, Sugawara Mizuki seat 15, the seat directly on his left, Zyoha was on his right now. He pulled out his notebook and the book for their first class, he opened the book looking over the reading from the weekend. 

The class suddenly got quiet and he knew Mizuki had walked in. He glanced up, finally seeing her in her uniform and not baggy athletic clothes. He’d already known her legs were long, lean powerful muscles were on display under her purple uniform skirt, emphasized by the short but effective heels that were only a shoe option for the 3rd year girls. He scanned up she was about 177cm with the heels putting her at 172cm without, she had an athletic build, her hips wider than her waist giving her a slight hourglass figure. He swallowed hard as his eyes kept moving up, her breasts were larger than he’d realized, the form fitting sweater over her light blue dress shirt was showing more than he’d anticipated, the white jacket was folded neatly over her book bag. Her long thick silver hair wavy gently curled to enhance the waves that fell around her shoulders, part of it pinned back keeping it out of her face for class. The teacher walked in right after everyone shifted into their seats, his voice freezing her at the front. “Sugawara, stay here for a moment.” She stopped “Class this is Sugawara Mizuki, she is a transfer student, help her get acquainted with the school as best you can, transferring in the middle of your 3rd year can’t be easy.” The class all acknowledged the teacher. “Now Sugawara could you please introduce yourself to the class and tell us a few things about yourself.”

She flashing a brilliant smile at the class “Of course Senpai,” bowing her head slightly to him. She shifted, crossing her ankles, “Hi, I’m Sugawara Mizuki, but honestly Mizuki is just fine, or Suga if you insist on calling me by my last name. I have a twin brother but he doesn’t go here, he goes to Karasuno. I play volleyball and am joining our girls team. They were nice enough to extend an offer to me even though I’m coming into the year late.” She stated, shrugging her shoulders as she finished, looking down, not completely comfortable with all the eyes being on her.

“Right then Mizuki” The teacher nodded, taking her at her word and using her first name “seat 14.” She nodded once before walking to her seat. 

“Told you so,” she said in a low voice as she took her seat next to him. He looked at her, his face still stoic, but he knew she was referring to her comment last night ‘I’m sure you’ll see me around’ she had been correct, more so than he’d realized since this was the second time that day that he’d encountered her.

“That you did.” He stated acknowledging the correctness of her words.

————

Even though he’d never seen her til the day before she seemed to have already found a close group with the girls volleyball team. They tossed a white athletic jacket to her across the table. She held it up, a number and her last name had already been pressed on the back, Sugawara 13. She smiled trying it on, the girls were super excited to have her. Ushijima couldn’t blame them. A smart solid setter was truly the only position they needed, their current setter was a first year who’d been cut from the basketball club but still wanted to play a sport. The poor girl had only been playing for 3 months and her sets were everywhere, when she wasn’t being called for a double or a lift which was often. The other setter had gone down earlier that year with a broken arm and collarbone from a car crash, she still wasn’t great though she was smart but didn’t have the power or control needed for the team to become a powerhouse. They had powerful hitters and decent passers but no one who could deal with the constant movement and turning gears a setter had to put together, with her though, the boys team suddenly wasn’t the only threatening one.

Jin stared at her “she’s pretty,” he finally stated, “I wonder what position she plays.” Jin continued to ramble the others on the team ignoring him.

“They are gonna shock everyone at the Qualifier this year.” Semi said, also watching the girl who had suddenly hit their radar. But he had to admit he hadn’t noticed her til he knew she could play volleyball and if he hadn’t been looking for her she wouldn’t have stood out to him.

“Between her, Kanaka, Zoya and Yukima, that’s a force to reckon with.” Tendō agreed. 

“Don’t underestimate Lee, or Tamegaya”

“Erickson, Ellis and Fukoroki are also threats in their own way.”

“Now you’re just listing them off,” Taichi laughed, bouncing a cashew off Jin’s head as he continued to ramble in La la land.

“Hey what was that for?”

“To get you to shut up, you’re bugging everyone at the table.” Taichi said, throwing another cashew. “We’ll get those answers at practice today.” Even though half of them already knew the answers to some of his.

“I wonder what the music is gonna be.” Tendō laughed. “I'm guessing we won't know a single song.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She moved here from the states. I'm guessing her music is going to be completely different from what we have.” Taichi laughed, shaking his head. “Yamagata and Semi will need to translate the lyrics for us.” 

“Why us?” Semi whined.

“You two are the closest to fluent out of all of us.”

“Ushijima definitely has us beat in English”

“Yea but he won’t know if he should be blushing or not.”

“So he can still tell you what the words are.” Semi grumbled. “And Tendo has spent time in the states, he knows more than he lets on.” 

————

They walked in and the girls were already grabbing their poles and the net, they must be really excited, the boys were shocked, normally the poles for the net were too heavy and they would pawn them off for the boys to help. Two girls were carrying one pole, Mizuki walking behind them with the other.

“Dang she has muscles,” Semi stated, she finally wasn’t wearing baggy shirts, she had a black cap sleeve dri-fit shirt on with her spandex and black shoes, a thin sleeve over her right elbow. You could see the lean muscles flexing under her shirt as she lifted the pole up putting it in the hole in the floor. Her hair was pulled tight with a long braid.

“She looks like she knows what she’s doing.” Tendō joked, causing a few of the others to crack a smile.

“Didn’t expect anything less.” Goshiki muttered.

Jin scoffed, everyone turned to look at him, “But no knee pads.”

“Maybe she doesn’t use them.”

Jin rolled his eyes as they moved to set up their net. “Mizuki!” Erickson yelled. “Which playlist?”

“The one labeled volleyball!” She called back, still focused on setting up the net, attaching one of the antennas to the net.

“I can speak English, I can't read it!” The girl yelled, it was true, some of her cousins lived in New York so at the Academy she was taking French since she was already fluent in English.

“I got it.” Ellis yelled, the foreign exchange student from Texas yelled, running over after getting the ball cart situated. She ran into the room that held the connections for the gym speakers. The boys jumped a bit when they heard a little squeal, “Miz, You are officially my favorite.”

“What song?” The silver haired girl laughed strapping the pads to the pole she’d carried out. “I like boys.” She laughed “I know people in Texas who don’t know Todrick Hall!”

Miz smiled. “Oh that one. I wasn’t sure if I should put it on,”

“I love it!!! It’s one of my favorites to blast at practice back home! And you have NEFFEX! Girl I’m so excited for your music!” Donovan Ellis laughed, she was already the closest to Miz on the team. Donovan also being from the States was thrilled she had someone who didn’t judge her, a little bit out there dance moves and singing, to what anyone else would have been wildly inappropriate songs.

“Then hit play and lets get to work!” 

Donovan disappeared for a moment before running out joining the team in jogging around the court, she ran next to Mizuki who she also paired up with for their arm warm up sequence, coaxing the new girl into dancing and singing to the song with her. “Style like they name Harry, Chocolate like Tyrese, I pick him up at Barry’s, Crunch Planet Fitness, Shirt off in the lawn, Sizzlin’ like grease, By day his name Gaston, By night I call him Beast!” They laughed warming up their arms, Kyra Erickson had joined in laughing. They dove into passing drills immediately after. 

“Well it's better than generic boy band stuff, we normally have when it's their day.” Tendo laughed, catching onto the lyrics singing along causing the rest of the team to groan, they all knew Tendo was bi, but now he had a song to sing. “Mama I like boys, I like pecs, Like them arms when they flex, Like that print in them sweats, Tell them girls “thank you, next”, I like when they text me sexy pics of ‘em, Like them abs when there’s six of ‘em” Tendo sang dancing as he pushed out the ball cart. Mizuki caught his eye across the gym, smiling at the red head’s hilarious antics. That was the last time she paid attention to the boy’s court til practice was out, except for part way through when she ended up on their court. 

"Does no one in this gym know how to control a hard hit with a tomahawk pass?" The coach yelled, glaring at the boys team, 7 hands pointed at Mizuki. Their coach looked over, seeing the silver haired setter leap for a jump set before turning and throwing it straight down into the floor behind her back with incredible power for a dump. The 7 team members pointing at her didn't even look fazed having seen her use that exact move on Ushijima when she'd tricked him for the 3rd time in a row last night. He'd been furious, he wasn't used to dealing with that from anyone in the prefecture, not even Oikawa had ever given him that much trouble. To be honest he'd been aggravated most of the practice match they played.  
Mizuki jumped again, it was the exact same as the last pass had been but this time she shot it outside running a shoot, right into Yukima's hand. "Mizuki why are the boys pointing at you?" Yuka Lee asked, pausing midway through her approach behind the setter. She landed and glanced over.  
"Not a clue." She answered mid set as the next ball was passed running a 32 51 stack with her middle and outside hitter. The boys coach stalked over, tapping her coach on the shoulder, who listened before shrugging and nodding.

Jin whined on the other court. “She is good and a setter.” 

“She’s better than good.” Wakatoshi stated the others who had played last night nodded. 

“Eh! Was that a compliment Wakatoshi?” Tendo spun on him, crowing. “He’s finally growing up!” A few of the boys laughed at Tendo’s cooing over the Ace.

“Yea she can go toe to toe with you,” Semi said watching the girl fake a jump set only to turn with it and slam it down in a spike. Mizuki stopped jogging over to the boys coach while the girls got water. 

“What do you mean by that?” Jin asked.

She nodded a few times as the coach talked to her. “You are about to see.” Taichi said, clapping the other 3rd year on the shoulder.

“Who’s going to be my spiker for-“ Washijō stopped part way through his sentence Ushijima had already squared up with her on the other side of the net, Tendo and Tsutomu taking the place at the net to block for her. Semi stepped the net under to set.

“Again?” She laughed as they took their positions from the night before. His eyes narrowed at hers as he focused, she met his glare head on smirking at him. “Good luck Hotshot,” she teased, stepping up to the challenge.

“Ushiwaka, go easy on her.” One of the boys laughed.

“Why would I do that?” He asked. Taichi groaned that sounded so bad, the others looked stunned, not realizing yet, she’d probably have his head if he didn’t.

“Blunt Bastard” Taichi grumbled under his breath as others on the team started to protest, he was sure he’d had the same terrified look as the whole gym did last night. 

“Bring it on Boy Wonder.” She laughed, not realizing the crowd that was now watching them, the teams that had been passing through the gym had stopped.

The other coach tossed the ball to Semi who threw the ball outside for Ushijima who laid into the ball with all his force from above Goshiki’s arms who, yet again, had mistimed his jump “Ah Sorry Miz!” he cried in dismay realizing he’d just left a ton more court open that she now had to cover. In a split second she was under it, with the same move as the night before, a matrix style back bend over her own legs controlling the ball perfectly. 

He sneered. She smirked back at him before bolting up and tearing off to the outside. He immediately laid chase to her knowing how this went. She was infuriating. Goshiki set her a 2nd tempo 4 hoping to make up for his terrible blocking attempt. He ran through his options if he didn’t block, she’d slammed the ball down, if he did, she’d just make a crazy cut shot to get around him. If he tried to pressure her into a certain direction she’d use him, if he tried to not get tooled, she still used him. He had one last option, make all forward motion impossible, shut her hit down completely. He leapt up as she was in the air he pressed his hands over the plane of the net as far as he could getting in the way of her arm swing as much as possible. All of a sudden she was spinning in front of him so she no longer faced the net. She punched the ball hard, sending the ball backwards, off his fingertips and up into the second level. She didn’t need forward motion to win. She’d taken every option, he’d tried so far. They landed, facing off across the net. The gym was dead silent, it was like watching two Gods face off. “Well that was unconventional.”

“Just cause the obvious way is blocked doesn’t mean that’s the only way.” She shrugged.

“Fair point,” he said as they walked back to the team.

“Ehhhh?!” Goshiki suddenly exploded, breaking the silence causing a cascade of whispers to ripple through the gym, she had stood toe to toe with their ace and had won. “Mizuki-senpai!!!! Teach me! Teach me! Teach me!!!” The first year was positively bouncing as he bowed over and over to the smaller girl.

“After practice.” She said, as the team all yelled at the embarrassing 1st year to shut up. She jogged back to her court grabbing her water bottle, taking a drink as she pulled her shirt up to wipe sweat away from her face.

Tendō sighed leaned over to the captain “Stating the obvious isn’t flirting” only receiving a scowl in return from the Ace. “You should have gone with the compliment,” He offered. 

“Why repeat myself?”

“She couldn’t hear you the first time.”

“This is confusing,” Ushijima muttered, walking to get in the drill line.

She suddenly noticed the entire gym was staring at her. She yanked her shirt down quickly, grabbing a baggy shirt out of her bag and throwing it on over her dri-fit. She was quiet, walking into the hallway to get away from all the eyes. She hated it, she knew it was just her mind playing tricks on her, those faces were still back in California. She took a few deep breaths, stuck her head under the cold water, before returning to practice. Tendo watched her re-enter her eye darting around like they had when he’d surprised her the night before, and hair dripping despite having just wiped the sweat from her forehead and a new shirt over her previously form-fitted one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I love writing the relationship the Sugawara twins have. 
> 
> Just for clarification this starts in Late August just after the qualifying rounds for the spring tournament. I'm trying to keep Ushijima and Tendo as in character as possible, while also opening up a connection between them and Mizuki, Ushijima is especially hard and I tend to have to rewrite his lines and actions multiple times to get the correct effect. Tendo is easier since he is defiantly a more observant person in general. If you have any comments please let me know. Hope you're enjoying the story!
> 
> Fun Setter fact about Volleyball! Sets do technically have coordinates! The three numbers I was mentioning in the last chapter are the area of the net the ball is hit from, the height of the set at its maximum in feet above the net and how far off the net it is set in feet. So a 1, 4, 3 would be outside with in the first 3 foot area from the antenna into the court, the highest point is 4 feet above the net and it is 3 feet off the top tape of the net.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hope you are all doing well with whatever stage of current confinement you're in, I know my sleep schedule couldn't get any more screwed up than it is currently. But it means I've had a lot more time to write and mess around with these stories and to watch way too much tv. I'm in the middle of rewatching Supernatural and Gilmore Girls which between the two shows may or may not have had some influence on the Twin's relationship.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 3

  


Mizuki, Wakatoshi and Tendo were sitting in class on Friday, they had become close quite quickly, just the night before Ushijima had told her to drop his last name.

  


Flashback  
  
"You know I consider you a friend right?" he asked looking down at her as they grabbed water part way through the after practice set. She looked up at him with a look of mild confusion and surprise in her eyes, her eyebrows high and knitting together. She had water filling her cheeks from her water bottle and some of it had escaped her lips and was now dripping down her chin. He reached out wiping the drip away with a long finger, she yanked her head away swallowing and gasping at the same time causing her to start violently coughing. His eyes widened as she turned away from him, her eyes watering while her lungs rejected the water she had just breathed in. He pulled the towel from around his shoulders offering it to her, placing a hand on her back as her coughing fit continued.  
  
Finally she looked up at him "What about it?" She wheezed.  
  
He smiled down at her "Almost none of my friends call me Ushijima."  
  
"Your team does."  
  
"Only sometimes, normally they call me Wakatoshi though." He shrugged.  
  
"So what do you want me to call you?"  
  
"Wakatoshi is fine." He said.  
  
"Hmm, it's a bit long for my taste." She teased, "Is just Toshi ok?" She asked.  
  
He looked down at her, the name rolling off her tongue echoing in his head. "It's better than the other nicknames I've gotten." He concluded setting down his water bottle returning to his side of the court across the net from her. 'Toshi' he thought the name still replaying in his head, a smile cracked across his lips at the sound of it coming off her tongue. Yea he definitely liked it, it fit better than Waka-kun which some of the girls in the school liked to call him.  
  
End Flashback

  


"Sooooo." Tendo baited the line waiting for Ushijima and Mizuki to look up. They did as he extended his word. "Wakatoshi, Why is it that you always seem to go so hard against little Mizuki here, she seems to frustrate you to no end."  
  
"No she doesn't" Ushijima answered quickly, staring at his friend confused as to why he said that.  
  
"You punched a locker last night."  
  
"It wasn't Mizuki-chan, it was the situation. I thought I had it figured out." She opened her mouth to say something when he continued. "She's smarter than I am, she knows she can't be stronger, or a better hitter than me, or even overpower me, but she still fights back in her own way and it pushes me to be better." He said. "She's a tough opponent alone, but she also knows exactly how to utilize the strengths of everyone else on the court."  
  
Mizuki looked up at him with her eyes wide, "Toshi-kun, I had know idea that I frustrated you."  
  
"Well you do,"  
  
"And not just on the court," Tendo chuckled under his breath, receiving a rare smack over the head with a workbook from Ushijima. Mizuki looked down at her paper pretending to have not heard the comment. Tendo smirked at Wakatoshi though as they saw the light blush flirt across her cheeks.  
  
After a few minutes of Tendo staring blankly at his homework he decided that he needed a new strategy, he wasn't understanding any of the things in front of him, "Miz, I need help." He whined.  
  
"With?" She leaned forward, peering across the table at the packet in front of him.  
  
"English, I know you're taking French or something but that's because you already know English." He was still really confused by some of the grammar the English language used.  
  
"What part?"  
  
"This I before E stuff and the three different spellings of there and what is with these weird marks at the top that allow you to add the back end of a word onto another?" He huffed. "It doesn't make any sense!"  
  
"I'll second those sentiments," Ushijima said, agreeing with his team mate.  
  
"Tendo, none of those things really make sense even to those of us who are fluent." Miz said looking over at them she really didn't know what to tell them, she still spelled things wrong she was not the person to ask, Koshi was. "Are both of you having issues with this?" They looked over at one another before they both nodded. "Well I guess we should study together then, if you guys want to come by my place after practice, Koshi and a few of his friends normally study after their practice. I'm sure we could take over part of the basement, and when it comes to grammar Koshi is better at explaining it, I lived there for so long I just do it because I heard it. Koshi actually knows the rules." She said.  
  
"We wouldn't be imposing?" Ushijima asked.  
  
"Not at all, we have plenty of snacks, a few of the girls come over too, Donovan is staying the night so you won't be the only ones there. Besides that'll give me time to get Daichi to help me with my Chemistry homework." Miz smiled pulling out her phone typing to Koshi and her father to let them know to expect a few more people over for studying that night. She hit send as the bell rang. "Hey, type in your number's so I can send you our address." She slid her phone across the table, Ushijima grabbed it typing in his number and hitting save before passing it to Tendo.  
  
Tendo bounced up packing his stuff up, thanking her profusely as they all walked towards the gym for practice.  
  
The conversation redirected towards the girls qualifying rounds that were taking place that weekend. Miz was feeling like they were in a good place from what she'd seen in the practice matches they had played, but all in all she wasn't sure how the prefecture stacked up so it was hard to truly tell. The girls spent practice running through game simulations, until the end when they had to serve 25 in a row and all of them had to be in. The boys were playing a practice game against a local college team that day so they didn't stay after for the normal 4v4 extra practice, both coaches telling them to rest up and to not overdo it. Especially the girls since they had to be in a gym by 1 pm the next day. The boys ventured off to shower and have dinner before they ventured to Mizuki's house that night.

They walked down the street carrying their school bags, Tendo and Wakatoshi were thrilled to not have to be in athletic clothes or their school uniform. They walked up the walkway suddenly hearing a crash from inside as Ushijima rang the doorbell. "Nova get the door!" They heard Miz yell, the door opened a few moments later by Donovan as a flash of short silver hair dashed into the entryway, gripping the bannister to leverage themselves, running up the stairs.  
  
"Hi!" Miz yelled as she leapt vaulting the bannister after her twin diving up the stairs, gripping her twin's ankle hauling him to the floor on the upstairs landing.  
  
"Suga, just give her it!" A voice half laughed from the other room. The boys stepped into the entryway, now that it was clear of the siblings fighting.  
  
"Daichi has a point Koshi!" She ground out.  
  
"How long has this been going on?" Wakatoshi asked, watching the two twins wrestle on the top floor.  
  
"Since he took her phone about a minute before you walked in." Nova answered.  
  
"Suga, we need you to be able to play, and if you keep this up you're going to end up hurt again." A different voice called.  
  
"Hey!" The silver haired boy yelled in defiance, sitting up from the floor just in front of the stair and glaring into the room next to them, his hair sticking up in every possible direction. Two other boys both with black Karasuno jackets came to stand in the doorway that led deeper into the house with book bags on their shoulders, "I win sometimes!"  
  
"Well you don't today!" Miz snarled, shoving her full weight into him snatching her phone out of his hand sending them both sliding head first down the staircase.  
  
"Demon twins" The boy with black hair muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. The tall man next to them with long hair chuckled. "Can we get to work now?" He asked as they landed at the bottom of the stairs in a heap of tangled limbs. They laughed disentangling themselves.  
  
"You ok?" The boy asked as he extracted himself from his twin.  
  
"Yea, but you knew that, and don't tell me you're fine I felt that too you know" Miz chastised.  
  
"Well besides the bruises that are going to be on my back from that stair sledding I'm good." She spun around as they grabbed each other's hands and put their feet together, one foot under the other's foot, the other foot over top as they pulled themselves up to a standing position in a way that you could tell had been practiced. "Hi," Koshi said, rubbing the back of his neck, greeting the two newcomers, "I'm Sugawara Koshi, Mizuki's brother." He held out his hand to them. "Sorry about that,"  
  
"Ushijima Wakatoshi." He shook Koshi's hand "I saw you a few weeks ago when you picked up Miz from Volleyball."  
  
"Tendo Satori" The redhead introduced himself shaking Koshi's hand as well "Is that normal?" Tendo asked, his head cocking to the side as he glanced between the two almost identical humans with hazel eyes and silver hair. He hadn't missed the widening of the other two's eyes when Ushijima introduced himself. Not that he expected less, he knew they played volleyball and Wakatoshi was a bit of a legend at the high school level.  
  
The tall man with long hair laughed "Yea that was nothing, those two are the most competitive siblings I've ever seen. You should see the fights over who goes to refill the snacks."  
  
"Asahi!" Miz laughed "We are not that bad."  
  
"Yea, you two are." The other boy with black hair smirked. "Only thing worse is when the two of you decide to be on the same team."  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" Koshi asked, throwing his arm around his twin's shoulders, her arm looping around his waist as they smiled, "We are always on the same team. Now come on we have to study. Daichi can you lead the way, we are grabbing snacks." Koshi asked as the two of them walked down the hallway into what was probably the kitchen.  
  
"Sure, Demon twins." He muttered again. The only response he received was their low laughing as they walked acting as if one of them hadn't just tackled the other down a flight of stairs. "This way," he led them to a doorway opening it to a staircase going down into the basement.  
  
"Why do you keep calling them Demon twins?" Donovan asked, following the taller boys down the stairs keeping the space between the Karasuno boys and the Shiratorizawa boys.  
  
Asahi chuckled "They are a special pair, they are incredibly close and protective of each other, and they have a weird, really weird connection, it's like they can read each other's mind sometimes." He explained.  
  
"That's not even the weirdest part," Daichi looked back at Asahi like he was skipping something important. "If one gets hurt, the other can feel it. Physical pain mainly but emotional can seep through the connection too."  
  
"No way." Tendo said.  
  
"We tested it. I'm not even joking, they can feel it. Koshi pissed Miz off at school a few months ago and she punched her own leg as a way of punching him. I'm sure it was enough to drive their parents insane, siblings that can fight physically without touching the other, and as you saw grappling matches aren't uncommon."  
  
"Wait, she went to Karasuno?" Tendo asked as they found themselves in a fairly open floor plan room with a wall partway dividing it from the step down hardwood side and the carpeted side they were currently in. A large long kotatsu table was offset by a small kitchenette, a large couch curling around two sides of the table and backing part of the dividing wall. A large tv in front over a brick fireplace next to the table. On the other side of the room a few steps down on to a hardwood floor was a pool table that had other overlays available to lock onto the top of it, ping pong table overlays and an air hockey overlay sat in the corner, set up next to it was a foosball table. A set of balance boards sat in front of a wall with a target painted on it, a volleyball in between them. A small home gym next to that.  
  
"She did, she moved here at the beginning of the school year, she started at Karasuno for the first few months, she didn't fit with the girls very well and they started some really awful rumors about her so she transferred schools to somewhere no one knew her." Asahi growled, obviously frustrated with what had happened at their own school as he set down his bag on the far side of the kotatsu. Daichi followed suit, tossing his bag and Suga's next to Asahi, they plopped down on the ground, Daichi leaned over clicking on the warming feature of the kotatsu as he shoved his feet under it.  
  
"Well that's not an issue at Shiratorizawa." Wakatoshi said, his voice steady. "We will keep her safe." He said a strange feeling of protectiveness run through him  
  
"And if it became an issue I'd put my boot down their throat." Nova said, her eyes dark.  
  
"Exactly," Tendo said quietly, "Differences aren't things that tear our teams apart, they are what make us stronger." His voice held a startling amount of conviction, both Daichi and Asahi's heads snapped up to look at the three standing there.  
  
"Well I'm glad she has people to look out for her there." Asahi said breathing out steadily to calm his nerves.  
  
The twins walked in carrying bowls, plates and a platter of something, they set them down on the table before grabbing their bags and spreading out, settling in to study for the night. Koshi sitting next to Tendo and Ushijima helping them with their English homework, while Miz pulled up next to Daichi as they worked on their chemistry.  
  
Koshi was finally finished helping the boys with their English homework when Miz looked over and told him they needed more snacks. He looked up and smiled "Foosball?"  
  
"First to five?"  
  
"Done" they both jumped up walking over to the foosball table.  
  
"Don't flip the table." Daichi called after them,  
  
"Shut up! Dai"  
  
"That was one time." They called back.  
  
"They flipped the table?" Nova asked.  
  
"Foosball is aggressive in this house."  
  
"Everything is aggressive between those two. Which is weird because Suga isn't in almost anything else. He fights back is smart and focused on the court but he has nowhere near this level of ferocity. I don't know about Mizuki, since I only see her when she's with Koshi, but it's all but war when they clash." As Asahi finished his sentence a loud thud was heard along with the whirl of the foosball sticks being spun.  
  
Nova shot up looking over as they lifted the table up with the force of their spins. She shook her head sitting back down, a loud HA! Being yelled by one of them every 15 to 30 seconds causing them to jump as the volume increased. Finally Miz yelled in triumph switching to English "HA! Suck on that Koshi!" her words had Nova immediately cracking up, knowing there wasn't a way to truly say that in the Japanese language.  
  
"You are a terrible sport!" He snipped back reverting to Japanese again.  
  
"Oh Psht! You know that's not true."  
  
"You both are but only when it comes to each other," Daichi grumbled, causing Asahi to snicker next to him.  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah I'm going." Koshi hissed storming grumpily up the stairs.  
  
Miz hopped back over the couch taking a seat next to Wakatoshi and Nova putting her stuff away. "You guys feeling done for the night?" They all looked over at her nodding. Shuffling and putting their stuff back into their bags. "Ok well we could relax with a tv show or a movie, or there is ping pong or pool or air hockey."  
  
"What are the board things over there?" Nova asked, looking back and forth between the twins.  
  
"One of Mi-cha's crazy ideas of a fun drill. It's a balance board so it constantly is rolling from side to side over the pipe it's set on. Then her idea is that you pepper while standing on them and try to not die in the process." Suga explained exaggerating the difficulty of it.  
  
"It's not so bad once you get used to it and if you can control your form. Any excess motion does tend to make it harder." Mizuki said, "Daichi and I had it up for a while last time." She said, throwing an arm around the Karasuno Captain's shoulders.  
  
He smiled pulling her into his side. "Yea we had it for a bit, but it took a bit to warm into it and it was way easier when we were on the carpet." He mused. "But let's do something we can all do together. How about a movie or something like that."  
  
"As long as it's a group decision, if we let Mi-cha pick we'll end up with a shitty movie." Suga warned sitting next to Daichi on the couch, as his twin turned on the tv his comment quickly earning him a pillow to the face.  
  
"Oh shut up. Ok how about this I'll call out three titles, and then we can vote which one to watch." Mizuki said glaring over at Kochi "Will that work for you, stick in the mud?"  
  
"Fine with me." He grumbled, throwing the pillow back.  
  
Mizuki flipped through the choices. "Ok Captain America, Good Morning Vietnam, or Never Been Kissed? There, three movies in three different genres!"  
  
Tendo immediately voted for the romantic comedy, Wakatoshi shrugged following his lead, Asahi happily agreed, glad to not be the only male wanting to watch Never Been Kissed. Koshi and Daichi went for Captain America not wanting to give into the romantic comedy idea without a little bit of a fight. Donovan immediately jumped at the idea of a shirtless Chris Evans and agreed to Captain America, putting the final decision in Mizuki's hands. She thought for a moment before flipping a coin then committing to Never Been Kissed. Donovan groaned "How did a shirtless Chris Evans not just win?" She complained.  
  
"Because awful romantic comedies are always better, and the teacher is hot."  
  
"But is he Chris Evans hot?" Donovan argued.  
  
"Uh he was a hockey player in the story so yes that would make him as hot as Chris Evans." Miz argued as she hit play "Now zip it,"  
  
"You are so weird, why are bad movies your favorites"  
  
"Because you always know the end is a happy one."  
  
"That just makes them predictable."  
  
"Like Captain America isn't? It comes with a full book of spoilers! You've known how the whole thing ends for years! It's a comic book. In the end you know Thanos-" Koshi tackled her over the back of the couch again.  
  
"I haven't read them, shut up." Koshi and Mizuki hit the ground. He rolled on top of her as they wrestled, both were strong.  
  
"Then read them," Tendo and Wakatoshi where starting to get used to the strong willed twins, they were incredibly entertaining but also close, never going far enough to seriously hurt the other, and Koshi always seemed to be wary of his sister and she him, they could tell this was a fun pastime for them since if they actually had wanted to inflict damage their had been many a point were they could have but choose not to.  
  
"That involves figuring out American comic books, they don't make sense!"  
  
"Yes they do." Miz shoved hard against Koshi's chest trying to get him off. She almost had him off, shoving his side and shoulder with her hands.  
  
"Only to you!" He hissed with a renewed effort to stay in control and win, he grabbed her wrist pinning it above her. The others narrowed their eyes as the scene suddenly changed with that one move. Miz froze, they heard her breath catch, "Shit." Koshi suddenly whispered completely, releasing her wrist. They suddenly only heard murmurs as the two spoke quietly, their entire demeanor changing in that instant. Daichi and Asahi were both sitting straight up their eyes wide, when the two sat up a few moments later their breathing had calmed down. But then they acted as if nothing had happened. Koshi pulled her up from the floor, they both hopped over the back of the couch, Koshi next to her and Daichi, while Wakatoshi was on her other side.  
  
A gentle hand on her side caused her to look up at the dark olive eyes, she smiled up at him pressing back into his warm hand as she realized his silent question 'Are you ok?' she nodded for extra confirmation. He was different, she realized, he was calm, confident and dependable, he never pushed her, but always let her know he was there. She smiled, glad she had found people she could trust outside of her brother and his friend's. She wasn't quite ready to share her story with them yet, but she knew she could trust them, when that time came around.  
  
After the movie she loaded all the boys and Nova into the Explorer parked in the driveway Daichi, Asahi and Tendo in the far back, Nova and Ushijima in the pilot seats in front of them, Mizuki and Koshi were currently doing Rock Paper Scissors out front deciding who got to drive. Koshi lost, putting him in the shotgun, in front of Nova's seat, and Mizuki in front of Ushijima. When the door opened, Daichi and Asahi cheered in the back, "Yay we got the one who doesn't drive like a grandma!"  
  
"Don't encourage her!" Koshi snapped, rolling his eyes.  
  
"But we love it when she drives!"  
  
"What?" He spun on them "No way!"  
  
"Uh Suga, she actually drives like it's a car, not a rickety golf cart." Daichi laughed watching as Koshi's face turned red, he smiled warmly teasing the silver haired boy.  
  
"See if I ever give you a ride somewhere again."  
  
Daichi and Asahi laughed at Suga's empty threats, they were too close for him to not offer to drive them home after practice every day. He might skip it for a few days but by the end of the next week he'd be back to it.  
  
Tendo had his hands in the air whooping loudly as the explorer jumped in the air a bit as she hit a bump. Nova laughed "You drive like you're from California!" As she did a classic California roll at the next stop sign.  
  
"I am. Or at least I learned to drive there." Mizuki shook her head as she drove over the mountain to drop off Daichi and Asahi.  
  
"Suga wouldn't be out of the neighborhood yet," Daichi teased but quickly shut up as Koshi turned around to look at him with that smile of his that you could never tell if it was that of a saint's or a devil's. He had to admit it was one of the few things that even he was terrified of, his mischievous silver haired friend, when he wanted to, could give Puck a run for his money. Daichi was dropped off first, much to his relief. Koshi however hopped out and followed him up to the door muttering that he'd be right back.  
  
Mizuki watched intrigued by her brother's reaction as he walked with his captain to the door. "Asahi what's going on between my brother and Daichi?" She asked as they stood on the porch partially hidden by the shadows. Her voice was different is was soft, like she knew exactly what was happening up there.  
  
"Oh umm that, uhh it's well, hard to say."  
  
"So it's exactly what I think it is."  
  
"Yea, it happened about 2 weeks ago" Asahi relented. Ushijima and Tendo looked between the two, Asahi's face red while hers held a small smile.  
  
"Good, better late than never." She turned to Asahi, he shrugged and nodded. The whole car let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding, Tendo, and Ushijima breath knowing she wouldn't disregard Tendo for his tastes in a partner. Being bi had been one thing Tendo had had trouble sharing even with Wakatoshi who he would freely admit was his closest friend. The situation had thrown the Ace as he watched it, not knowing what her reaction would be but also knowing he would always have his friends back. Tendo smiled as they locked eyes, she'd have his back as well and that was exactly what he wanted from any girl that wound up catching his best friend's intrigue.  
  
Koshi hopped back in the car, his hair a wreck and much to their surprise she said nothing and acted like she still didn't know. Til they got halfway down the street. "Koshi."  
  
"Uh yea"  
  
"You look like Kuroo with that bed head he just gave you." She smiled, clapping her brother on the shoulder who just smiled back chuckling at her warm smile. Ushijima felt his heart race at the warm smile she gave her brother. He wanted that smile directed at him. She dropped off Asahi at his place not missing the blush on the man's face as he exited the car.  
  
Wakatoshi suddenly wished Koshi was driving, maybe he really would be slower, then he could stay longer, he just wanted to be next to her. Tendo and Nova were chatting animatedly about the qualifiers the next day. She stopped the car by the gate, he wasn't excited to be getting out of the car. He wanted to see her for longer, he wanted to see her tomorrow, he'd been enjoying his weeks sitting next to her, working on projects and being able to talk to her about anything and everything, having her always be there. Tendo stepped out of the car wishing Nova and Mizuki good luck during their qualifying rounds over the weekend.  
  
Wakatoshi stepped out of the car. Mizuki had already gotten out and and walked around hugging Tendo asking if he was going to the games, he looked at Wakatoshi and shrugged, "We want to make it, but coach has us practicing all afternoon tomorrow, we hopefully can go on Sunday though."  
  
Mizuki hugged Wakatoshi "Well hopefully we will see you on Sunday then." She said her arms tightening around his torso.  
  
"Sunday" he acknowledged, squeezing her gently "Good luck this weekend," he said adding in "Not that you'll need it, you alone on the court is a force."  
  
"No not this weekend." She said smiling as she pulled away slowly.  
  
"What do you mean? You aren't playing?" He asked, suddenly worried.  
  
"Oh no I'm playing, but I'm hoping that we can stick to our basics and really focus on just being the best 6, volleyball is a team sport after all, and the best team of 6 cohesive players, those teams tend to win. At least that's the current game plan."  
  
Suga's eyes watched carefully as he listened to his sister. She had a very good point, and she was willing to drop the fancy plays and crazy to fit with her team. She had always been a rock on the court, she had the potential to be the Ace of any team but she chose to be the support instead of the star. Ushijima nodded, her role as a setter was very different from his as an opposite and outside hitter. It was something he'd learned from watching her play, picking up on her style and trying to emulate it, he wasn't nearly as good technically but he still could hold his own when it came to working together and bonding his team into a solid unit.  
  
"Alright well, have fun at practice tomorrow, we should get back though, we have games to play tomorrow, and I doubt Nova is going to let me sleep until we've watched some action movie with a shirtless superhero." She said.  
  
"Aww you know me so well." Nova giggled from her spot back in the car.  
  
"Of course," He nodded watching her get back in the car. "Text me when you all get home safe." she nodded.  
  
They turned and walked up to the student gate next to the dorms. Tendo unlocked the gate and walked in. "We should do that again." Tendo said, Wakatoshi looked over and nodded to him.  
  
"Yea, that was fun." He agreed.  
  
"I definitely understand the Demon Twins reference," Tendo giggled.  
  
"Yes they are something else." He chuckled.  
  
"They are interesting, I wonder what that reaction was just before the movie." Tendo mused they both got quiet as they reviewed the interaction. "I'm sure she'll tell us in her own time."  
  
"I hope so, cause that was unnerving"  
  
"Getting protective now Wakatoshi?"  
  
"I like her, isn't being protective over the people you care about a normal thing?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK hopefully everyone is safe and sound. I'll try and get more chapter's out soon, I have an idea for the ones coming up. But I will warn you here things in this may get a little dark. I'll throw the warning up in the tags if it does and let you all know before the chapter starts so you can decide for yourself if you want to read it.
> 
> Volleyball fact for the chapter! While Haikyuu is correct that you only get two timeouts per set (most matches are best 2 out of 3 sets) the way they do substitutions isn't correct. As a team you get 12 Subs per set not 2, its not soccer(even though they get 3). Once a player has been designated for another though then that is the only player they are allowed to go in for. Libero's aren't subs and never count they have their own special rules. So if Suga is subbed for Hinata then, Suga and Hinata become a substitution pair. Normally in Volleyball one side of the pair plays back row and the other half plays front row. They aren't just used for pinch serves which isn't often a stand alone position.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The girls arrived at the gym the next day at noon, Kōshi dropped them off at the front before going to park. “Sawamura-kun was right, your brother drives like an old lady.” Nova laughed as Mizuki smiled.

Mizuki walked in her head still scattered from the night before. Nova bounced around her, “Yea, he grew up with mom teaching him, she’s super cautious when it comes to driving.” Nova hadn’t changed, she still treated Miz the exact same as she had before, Miz had finally opened up to her after everyone had been dropped off, Kōshi had even encouraged her to do it. Nova was understanding, even opening up about a few things that scared her and by the end of the night, while no movies had been watched the two knew that they had the others back and were there for eachother. They entered the gym looking around, a few of the girls were already there, blankets were set up on the floor. Mizuki and Nova walked over, dropping their gym bags into the mix, both feeling more comfortable with letting their guards down a little more. 

Miz took a seat on the far side, but this time she only pushed one of her headphones into her ear leaving the other out so she could engage with her team. She left the spot next to her open knowing Kōshi would probably come join her when he finished parking. “We are on the far court at 1pm” Akari Kanaka said, Miz nodded once leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes listening to the others chat. “Once everyone gets here we’ll start warming up.” Kagami tossed a speaker at Miz.

“What are you listening to?” Kagami asked.

“Irish music.” Miz said unplugging her headphones and plugging in the speaker,

“Really?” Kyra laughed “why?”

“Ever tried to not be in a good mood while listening to Irish music?” She’d been listening to it all morning trying to clear away the emotional hangover of the night before, it was slowly working.

“No.”

“Ok, well then I dare you to not smile while listening to it.” Kyra nodded accepting the challenge. “It's also a great way to immediately be in a good mood, making it an easy transition onto the court, to be relaxed, have fun, not be nervous and be able to compete hard right from the first whistle. Or at least that's what it does for me.” Miz explained, as the speaker synced with her phone, a bouncy bagpipe and fiddle melody playing out of the speaker. 

It only took a few moments before they were all laughing, and clapping along as they swayed in place Kyra included, Nova even getting up and starting to skip around before dragging Haruhi up, skipping in a circle with her as they giggled. 

Kōshi walked in stopping a few yards back after glancing at the schedule for the day, one game today, and if they won it’d be one tomorrow, if they lost they’d play again that day. He turned to see the Shiratorizawa team who were all dancing or clapping looking completely crazy but they were definitely having fun. As he got closer he realized the hilarity he was watching had come at the hands of one of his sister’s oddball playlists. He laughed leaning back on a column a safe distance away to not disturb the team. “Aww if it isn’t Mr Refreshing.” A voice cut through his musing. 

Kōshi turned and looked to his side looking up he saw the tall cute man standing next to him, “Oikawa-kun what brings you here?” Kōshi asked, his head tilting a little up to him. 

“Family friend plays for the girls team.” Oikawa motioned towards the Shiratorizawa team. “What about you?”

“My sister is playing.” Kōshi shrugged.

“What team?”

“The one that has a player that looks like me if I had long hair, and needed a bra,” Kōshi smiled over at the taller brunette. It took Oikawa a second to realize that Kōshi was both serious and messing with him. He looked over at the Shiratorizawa girls team seeing the gorgeous girl who looked almost exactly like Kōshi if he indeed had breasts and long silver hair that curled in gentle waves. Oikawa’s mouth dropped open slightly.

“You have a twin.”

“Yep,”

“Is she a bench warmer like you?” Oikawa teased his nasty side showing as he tried in vain to get Kōshi back a bit for his cheeky comment.

Kōshi just shrugged a smirk curling on his lips “Kōshi!” A girl flew into Kōshi’s side, the silver haired boy smiled up at Oikawa with a mischievous smile, “come on you’re missing the fun.” Oikawa watched as the girl yanked her twin away toward the team he followed her, watching the two bounce around, skip dancing with one another to a weirdly bubbly jig as they laughed. Oikawa followed them over, Yuka bounced up hugging him, they chatted for a bit before Akari told them it was time to go. 

Oikawa and Kōshi wished them good luck before finding seats in the stands, not willing to sit in the standard student section, too much white and purple. “So she’s the setter?” Oikawa asked, Kōshi nodded. He kept watching, Yuka had sworn up and down to him that the team’s setter was some sort of Volleyball God. So far he hadn’t seen anything that stood out, Mizuki was a fluid member of the team, she made the sets she needed too. Everything was spot on, she was a good technical setter, and she brought the team up with her causing her to fall into the background. As a setter himself he saw the skill in that, the girl was talented, but Yuka must have been exaggerating when she’d told him this girl could go toe to toe with Ushiwaka. “She reminds me of you, dependable” Oikawa said, a sneer of annoyance curling onto his lips, finally looking over at Kōshi “She does exactly what she’s supposed to, I don’t know what Yuka was so excited about.” He rolled his eyes. 

Kōshi just started laughing, his mood ever lightening as Oikawa underestimated his twin, paying him quite the compliment, not that Oikawa realized it. “I learned from her so I guess I would look a bit like her.” Oikawa didn’t get the fuss looking over at the silver haired boy next to him puzzled. 

“Suga!”

“Suga-san!” Oikawa and Kōshi looked over to see about half the Karasuno team walking over to sit with them. Oikawa’s face turned sour as they sat next to Kōshi, he scooted over on the bench to put some distance between them. “Has the game started?” Tanaka asked.

“Not yet. They are playing Date Tech’s girls team though.”

“Really? Are the girls an iron wall too?” Daichi asked. “Tanaka, Noya, stop drooling over the players!”

“But Daichi they are so pretty!” Tanaka called back.

“Not as much as the boys team. They are better known for their defense.” Oikawa answered when no one else did.

“So who is the favorite?” Asahi asked, sitting behind them wringing his hands as he watched the girls warm up, his eyes lingering on the blonde libero he’d met the other night.

“Shiratorizawa’s girls team isn’t the boys team.” Oikawa said “the Date Tech girls have made it to the finals in the prefecture every year so far. This should be an interesting first match up.”

“But they have Suga-san’s sister. Miz is pretty terrifying when she wants to be.” Tanaka said. The others laughed nodding, Oikawa just rolled his eyes, as far as he’d seen she wasn’t anything special.

He saw her serve, it was solid and he had to admit it was well placed, the more he watched though, he realized with her jump serve she had a wide variety to her serve, and every single time the approach was the same. Whether she hit a topspin, a float or a wicked fast serve, that even made his eyebrows twitch in surprise, you never knew what you were getting until she contacted it. The girl seemed kinda aloof to him though, for the last bit of the warm up she had headphones in as she worked away from the rest of the team. She was spiking against the wall alternating between hitting it with her left arm and right arm. Ok so she could control the ball enough to hit it with both hands. How had Yuka talked him into giving up his Saturday for this. The game started both sides yelling to have a good game. Mizuki wasn’t in at first, another girl lanky and definitely not as controlled as Miz was starting. The setter was running out of the middle back. “Why isn’t Mizuki starting?” Noya asked, looking at Suga.

Suga just shrugged, “Not sure but if I had to guess, she asked to watch for the first few rotations.”

“She asked to sit out? Why is she nervous?” Oikawa rolled his eyes, he was thoroughly unimpressed. But Kageyama seemed to be watching the silver haired girl’s every movement. It wasn’t often that Kageyama studied someone so intently, Oikawa felt uneasy he’d never even seen his protege study him like he was Mizuki.

“Not quite.” Suga smiled. Miz watched from the sideline one headphone still in her face blank but her eyes calculating. Then he saw it, Miz was discretely calling plays from the sideline, after three rotations Miz pulled out her headphones, put her phone next to her water bottle and waited. 

The game was already getting out of hand. By the time the first timeout was called it was 5 to 12 with Date Tech leading. All the girls ran in throwing their arms around one another the coach listened, but from the look of it Miz was the only one talking. The girls all nodded their expressions changing to match Miz’s sly smirk, they broke the huddle with a loud. “Light Em Up!” Miz walked up to the side line a sub flag in her hand calling out the other setter.

“Here we go.” Kōshi chuckled.

Oikawa watched as the quiet calculating setter that had faded into the background walked onto the court. The whole team seemed to settle around her; she took her place at the net ready to set. “Alright, one pass right here.” She said tapping her a sign against her side pulling her jersey out to hide the call from the other team. A devilish smirk curling onto her lips, the smiles broke onto the team’s face. Oikawa’s eyebrows knit together what the hell was going on. Miz stuck a hand up “I have hands.” 

“Two up, second setter’s in.” The middle from Date Tech called out to her team.

“Did she just?” Noya’s mouth dropped.

“Oh that was stupid.” Daichi muttered, shaking his head.

The Date Tech girl served the ball, Nova moved passing the ball. As the ball got to the attack line four girls moved in sync. Miz moved her hands already up by her face. She set her feet, and looked over her shoulder, the other team’s outside had already dropped off the net. ‘Single blocker at best for Nozomi Zoya out of the back row, keep her inside, Nozomi has a tendency to hit a natural cross so that’ll open the line for her.’ Miz thought before executing the play. Miz flipped the ball back. Her hands barely gave away the movement. Tempo 1 out of the back row with 4 girls in the air, Date Tech froze up, this was new. With no block in sight Nozomi hit the ball hard down the line stunning the other side. The ball hit the floor as the girls landed, the gym suddenly going quiet. 6 to 12.

Miz looked at Akari Kanaka as they moved to the middle of the court, Akari nodded, then at the other girls who smiled a knowing look coming onto their faces. One thing Miz had missed from her last team and playing with the boys, the cheering, girls volleyball was different in that way, unlike men’s where after points they might just yell from excitement, the girls were more coordinated. “Knock Knock!” She called. 

The girls on the court answered. “You about to get Shell Shocked!”

Miz called again but louder. “KNOCK KNOCK!”

The whole team on the court and bench answered this time. “You about to get Shell Shocked!” Miz leaned in telling the team something they nodded once rotating. 

Oikawa’s eyes widened, what had just happened, the boys next to him whooped and cheered as the girls took their positions, that wasn’t the same team that had been out there 30 seconds ago. Yukima served the other team picking it up, Miz dropped off the net moving in to get the possible tip, as the Date Tech setter tossed up a back set. Kyra and Akari moved to block. Miz watched just like she’d thought the opposite hitter's hand never pulled back, it was going to be a tip. “Nova Go!” Miz called. Leaping forward jumping high in the air intercepting the tipped ball. Her hands flashed, dishing it to the Libero who was already approaching. As the blockers came down Nova was hitting, the ball flying to the back of the court landing between two players. 7 to 12.

Nova smiled wide as they all watched her “I got the Power!” She yelled.

“I got the Power! I came to let ‘em know!” They all yelled back. Yukima’s next serve resulted in a shank, as the float took a last minute sideways dive. And the one after was an Ace both resulting in a cheer that resembled a cha cha step as the girl yelled “Yeah baby! I like it like that! Oh yeah! I like it like that!” 9 to 12 the momentum was shifting. 

Oikawa was stunned next to the Karasuno boys, the entire demeanor of the team had shifted when Suga’s sister had stepped on to the court, they all watched her, the girls team now had a leader and one that could control every part of the game. She was forcing Date Tech to react instead of play.

The next one was an overpass, Nozomi took the free ball on her hands pushing it up to Miz who jumped in the air both hands up to jump set. No blocker had gone up with her, Miz cranked hard, her right arm dropping, the force spinning her in the air, her left snapping high, contacting the ball with a solid hit that landed 3 feet in front of the attack line. 10 to 12. They all looked at Miz, Kanaka gave a smile and a nod to the whole team yelling “Jai Ho!” The girls on and off the court responded to the call with a stomp and clap pattern “Jai Ho! Just keep it burnin, yea baby just keep it comin”

The whistle sounded Date Tech had used their first time out. They all ran in clapping. “Let’s get this crowd into this with us.” Miz said, the other girls smiled nodding, with the students that came to support them, while it was nowhere near the number that came to the boys matches it would still hinder Date Tech’s ability to get back any momentum. Miz, Akari, Kagami and Kaoru turn towards their student section.

“Ready? 1,2,3,4! 1,2,3,4!” Akari said leading what started as a slow clap with Kaoru, Kagami and Miz but on the 4 they stomped hard into the floor as well. The students quickly caught on. Akari slowly sped up the pace til it there was a thunderous clapping and stomping echoing throughout the gym. 

As they got out on the floor with the timeout ending it was clear that Shiratorizawa had taken all the momentum, Date Tech looked on their heels, Miz called Nova over telling her to watch out for a hard shot cross court from the outside, Date Tech’s strongest hitter. Miz set the block a little closer to the line than normal forcing the girl to hit the cross court shot right into Nova’s platform, Miz went for another jump set. This time drawing the blocker Kyra realized that exactly what Miz had said would happen did, and was in the air just after her having a clear shot down the center. 11 to 12. Date Tech lost 4 more points before they finally blocked a ball of Akari’s. 15 to 13. Miz immediately told her sorry and taking blame for messing up the set, Akari just shook her head and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it Miz, let’s get this back, then you can give them hell with that serve of yours.” Miz smiled capitalizing on it, when the middle didn’t jump with her cause Kyra was approaching fast and hard, she threw the ball behind her straight down into the floor below. Mizuki smiled, that middle needed to realize that she had to watch her too. 16 to 13. They only got a few more points. They had taken a while to adjust to Mizuki’s serves. But even when they got the ball back they could only manage a small rally back before Shiratorizawa’s fast, furious and smart offense took care of them. 25 to 18.

The next set wasn’t much better, ending at 25 to 14, the gym all stared in shock. Shiratorizawa had a dangerous girls team. One that had just taken out a top prefecture school, the boys were known to be outstanding, the girls team, while good, had never been this on par with them for the same reputation. Oikawa couldn’t believe what he’d just seen, the Ace of the team was a setter, now he realized what Yuka had meant. “So did you see what all the fuss was about Oikawa?” Kōshi asked, smiling over at the dumbstruck Seijoh Captain.

Oikawa and the team got up to go congratulate the team, when they got down to the teams set up area all the girls were talking animatedly still buzzing from the win even as they stretched and cooled down. Mizuki had faded back into the background as the spitfire Libero took over the speaker and the center of attention. They hung back til the girls finished their cool down and quick meeting with the coach. Yuka and Mizuki walked together toward the Karasuno boys and Oikawa, Mizuki was almost immediately attacked by the tiny orange haired Karasuno middle blocker as he exploded with excitement. Miz smiled and laughed as the boy explained what he thought of the game in sound effects, followed by him bowing his head and asking her to teach him everything. He was almost immediately elbowed out of the way by the deep blue eyed setter who fought for her attention, wanting her to teach him instead. Yuka looked at the scene with a bemused expression, circling to the back where Oikawa was standing. “So?” Yuka prompted.

Oikawa took a second. “You weren’t wrong, she’s really good, very unassuming though, watching her warm up, you wouldn’t realize she would end up as the biggest threat on the court.”

“Yea she is a demon on the court, but as soon as we are off you would never think she was our Ace.” Yuka laughed as the girl blushed from the attention of the bouncing first year and his setter, “Until her I’d never seen someone hold their own against Ushijima”

“What do you mean? She actually can play against him?”

Yuka nodded. “It's scary to watch. It's like watching two titans clash, he has her in physical strength, height and power, they are easily even in technique and speed, but she is smarter than him and she can manipulate the ball better, I’ve never seen him lose it like he does when she’s on the other side of the net.”

“Lose control?” Oikawa’s eyes widened, he’d be stupid to not acknowlege the force the Ace could hit with.

Yuka nodded, “He doesn’t hold back at all from what I’ve seen,” glancing at the silver haired girl like she still couldn’t believe her own words.

Kōshi laughed overhearing the conversation before nodding to confirm it rubbing his own forearm absentmindedly. “I can confirm that,” he laughed, “I also know if he didn’t go all out she’d probably have yelled at him. She’s trained with some of the best in the world, Mr Perfect was never going to scare her.”

“Koshi what are you over here babbling about.” Mizuki had untangled herself from the now bickering 1st years and had an arm over her twin’s shoulders. 

“That Ushijima never scared you.”

“Oh that, heh, yea, never did never will.” She shrugged.

“The Ace of Japan’s U19 team doesn’t scare you.”

“Heard of Dalhausser?” Oikawa nodded “Kiraly?” another nodd “Gibb, Rosenthal, Patterson?” Oikawa nodded after each name. “He isn’t better than them so no he doesn’t scare me.”

“You’ve played against them?” Oikawa was too stunned to hide the aw in his voice.

She shrugged, as Kōshi confirmed it “She trained with the AVP beach tour when she was still living in California, and was on the U20 national team for the States” He bragged for her proud of his twin, despite her glowering at him. “Before she left Patterson wanted her to play mixed doubles on the circuit with him.” Oikawa gaped at the girl as he slowly started to realize she truly was a force of nature, especially if she’d already been invited to play on the Beach circuit, and by a one of the powerhouses of the circuit. 

“Ko-chan knock it off you’re scaring the boy.” Miz smacked her brother. “Sorry, he doesn’t know when to shut up sometimes.” Miz shot an annoyed look at Kōshi before stepping forward. “I don’t think we’ve met yet,” holding out her hand. “Hi I’m Sugawara Mizuki.”

Oikawa was elbowed out of his shock by Yuka, this was a 180 flip of the girl that had stepped on the court. “Oikawa Toru.” he smiled almost to himself as he took her hand, and being the flirt he was, brought it up to his lips kissing her knuckles. Kōshi rolled his eyes at the action exasperated with the over the top setter. 

“Ah, I’ve heard of you.” Mizuki laughed.

“Oh?” he commented, opening her to continue, letting go of her hand. “All good I hope?” 

“A little of both actually.” Miz smirked as Oikawa’s eyes widened. “But the judgements of others aren’t mine, I don't know you well enough to pass judgement” She shrugged.

“Oh and where did these things come from?” Oikawa asked, he was going to kill Ushiwaka.

Miz just laughed, “Really? I thought you’d have figured that out,” Oikawa knew he wanted to hear it though, and chose to stay quiet and shrugged noncommittally. “Well mostly from my brother’s team, Kōshi, Daichi, Hinata, Kageyama, Noya, even Asahi” Miz shrugged as not quite sure why she had to state the obvious. She glanced over toward where the Karasuno boys were standing, finding that Daichi had disappeared, chasing after Noya and Tanaka, which left Kōshi and Asahi to deal with the increasing volume of Hinata and Kageyama’s bickering.

Oikawa wasn’t sure if it hurt more that Ushijima hadn’t mentioned him or if he was relieved. Yuka laughed “You thought Waka-kun had told her something didn’t you Toru-chan.” Oikawa pouted but nodded to Yuka none the less. “Well maybe now that he has Miz to set for him, he’ll stop razzing you” Yuka laughed poking the taller boy’s side causing him to swat at her hands as she laughed at him.

“Yuka, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mizuki said to the girl. “Oikawa I’m sure I will see you around. We are going to head home for the day.” Mizuki laughed, chuckling as Kōshi helped Daichi drag the troublemaking 1st and 2nd years out of the gym past her.

“It was good to meet you too. I’m sure we will meet again.” Oikawa said, watching the girl carefully. 

“Bye Miz!” Yuka called earning a wave as she jogged over catching up to Asahi as they followed the rest of the squabbling crows out of the gym, listening to Daichi yell at Tanaka and Noya about being respectful and minding their surroundings.

\---------

The next day Kōshi had to laugh as the Seijoh Captain had dragged the whole Aoba Johsai Team to the girls match. What was even more amusing was when Kageyama and Oikawa both sat in the front row, 4 seats away from each other and spent the entire thing watching Mizuki like a pair of hawks. Iwazumi and Daichi nodded to each other, effectively calling a truce between the teams for the match.

Kōshi looked over a section where the Shiratorizawa boys team was standing; they were watching the girls away from the student section, seeing them in regular clothes was a little weird. He looked down watching as the girls warmed up, same as last time, Mizuki didn’t do anything flashy. The team across from them wasn’t a team he’d ever heard of and she was doing the smart thing, she wasn’t drawing attention to herself. He watched the other team, they weren’t bad. “Suga?” Kōshi looked over. Hinata was staring at the court with his head tilted to the side. 

Tendo’s howling laughter cut through as Suga looked down at the court the whole other team was watching Miz who as he looked he put all the pieces together, “Don’t worry Hinata she’s fine, it's a deception technique,” Kōshi said, shaking his head as his sister pretended to trip and intentionally missed her serve. “Miz doesn’t like the spotlight to be on her til she decides she wants it.” Kōshi shrugged.

“I don’t think Nova has that same affliction.” Daichi laughed as Nova had somehow found a stereo with a loud speaker as she played a playlist that Koshi had a sneaking suspicion was put together by his sister. Nova was bouncing around like an over caffeinated jack rabbit as she danced to the English lyrics, unaware of two pairs of eyes watching her, one pair dark red, the other a deep brown. Miz's face was carefully blank and a little wide eyed as she looked around. Kōshi caught Ushijima’s eye, the taller man’s eyes flashed down to Miz pointedly before looking back at him raising an eye as a look of concern broke on his face.

Kōshi leaned down to Daichi telling him he’d be right back squeezing his boyfriend’s shoulder, letting a thumb rub inconspicuously against his deltoid before he moved away. He walked down the rows and over a section, Ushijima walked down so they were on the same level “Is she ok, she seems, off.” the olive eyes looking into the hazel eyes that matched the girl on the courts.

Kōshi smiled. “Yeah she’ll be fine. She’s still not known here, and true to her cunning nature she’s using that to sway the other team.”

Tendo’s head popped up behind the Ace’s “What do you mean?” Ushijima asked.

“She is still fairly unknown in the prefecture so she warms up with the intent of being someone they overlook, it's a tactic she can use since she’s new, at least for the next month or so. At this level and here she can get away with it.”

“So you’re saying, she acts innocent and like she can’t play to gain the upper hand?” Semi said, an impressed smirk twisting on his face as he nodded down at the girl who was sitting on the ground next to the bench as she watched and chatted with the coach who laughed at something she said.

“Like a bomb in a teddy bear.” Tendo summarized, earning a series of groans and eye rolls from most of the team.

Kōshi just laughed, nodding, “That is fairly accurate. She did it yesterday too, after this though I don’t think she can get away with it, at least not easily. She knows it too, that's why she’s being so overly clumsy, it's her last time to really use it as a method of surprise, at least in our prefecture.”

“So she’s fine?”

A grin split across his face “She’s better than fine,” Kōshi said his eyes glinting with mischief, “You’ll see what I mean” he shrugged, walking back up to the crowd of Karasuno boys who were joking and laughing together in the stands. He stopped after a few steps looking back at the boys team he knew they would have to face to get to Nationals. “She’s different when she steps on the court for a game.”

The teams were meeting before going to line up on the court for one last cheer. Akari called the whole team in and they all circled up, arms wrapping around each other, leading the first cheer of the game. “Do you really want it?” the captains yelled.

“Yeah!” The team yelled leaning back to shout before leaning back in again.

“Do you really want it?” the captains yelled again.

“Yeah!” They yelled back straightening up and widening the circle as they did so.

“Do you really want it?”

“Yeah!” The other team had stopped their cheer and were gawking over at the Shiratorizawa team who were now jumping in a circle together three hops one way, then three hops the other way, with the loud call and response cheer.

“Go Go Go!”

“Go Go Go!”

“Ale Ale Ale!”

“Ale Ale Ale!

“Go”

“Go”

“Go!”

“Go!”

“GO”

“GO”

“GO!”

“GO! HERE WE GO! YEAH!” They yelled as they got impressively louder and louder. Before breaking and 6 girls running onto the court, laughing as Nova kept singing the next words to the song, inspiring the girls on the sideline to join her in a latin looking step and hip roll as she turned. The girls all eventually joining Nova’s goofy antics, having fun as they waited for the ref to call for the serve starting the game.

Ushijima wasn’t quite willing to take Kōshi at his word that Miz was fine, she wasn’t starting, he leaned forward over the rail. She watched the first bit of the game, her face blank, if she saw something not a single muscle moved to indicate it, except her hand on her thigh which yet again was calling plays to Maeko the current setter on the court. The other team started to pull away after two rotations, it was 8 to 11 and Shiratorizawa was losing by 3. The coach looked over at Miz who made eye contact with the man, that was all it took. The coach called for a sub, Miz ran up to the bench, she glanced up at him a smirk flickering across her lips as she grabbed the flag subing her in for Maeko. He relaxed as he saw the fire in her eyes that she always brought to the court when she was across from him, but this time it was mixed with something else, mischief, Kōshi had been right. The whole team suddenly seemed to look like they had a secret, one they were dying to tell, and they did, Miz wasn’t a clumsy uncoordinated setter like she had feigned in the warm ups. The smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth as she looked around at the team they were ready to go. Miz looked at the two hitters, Nozomi and Kaoru, she pulled her jersey forward hiding her hand that was silently calling the play, they nodded showing they understood. “Setter’s front row. Two up. Second setter!” Ushijima’s eyebrows rose as he heard Tendo snort in amusement next to him, he looked over to the Karasuno team the three third year were all laughing as they shook their heads grinning.

Miz wasn’t paying attention to it though she was watching the server. The server glanced at the back of the coaches clipboard where they were calling the service area, as soon as the server their eyes focused on the spot they were told to aim for. Miz’s hand on her leg immediately called the area she was serving. 4. On the contact Miz ran, she was right, area 4, Kaoru moved to pick up the short serve. Miz watched her platform, it was angled too far away from the target spot to run the called play. Miz stopped in the middle of the net short of the target spot. “Area 51!” Miz called as the pass hit Kaoru’s platform, she was right the pass wasn’t to the normal setters spot, it was just in front of her like she’d suspected. “Area 51!” she yelled again, calling off the original play and going for a verbal call instead, she jumped for the high passed ball. She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes observing the other team’s court before she made her choice. The opposite had a short block, the setter was already creeping forward not wanting to play defense typical of a setter. The middle hadn’t jumped with her but she was too far off to make an impactful dump.

Kaoru saw it too. “YES YES YES!!!! Kaoru yelled, approaching aggressively for the 51 which from her place would be behind her. Miz arched her back in the air and the middle moved, sold. The middle reacted, jumping with Kaoru, who had effectively taken all the team’s attention, even the opposite hitter was moving to help with the block. Nozomi was in the air too, but she was quiet, Miz pushed the ball forward to the 32 Nozomi was running just in front of her just a step behind Kaoru, that half second was enough though, none of them had seen the middle coming around the front. With the setter already pulled up to cover for a tip the line was clear and open, a fact that Nozomi took full advantage of. “OHHH HERE COMES THE!” Kaoru yelled, starting the cheer, the rest of the girl on the court joining her.

“BOOM!” The girl off the court responded yelling just as loud.

“HERE COMES THE!”

“BOOM!”

They rotated, Miz bumping fists with Nozomi as she went back to serve.

Kyra rotated into the front row taking her place at the front in the middle of the net. Mizuki was next to her. She pressed a signal into Kyra’s back calling her to go for a 1st tempo slide on the next play, her other hand behind her back telling Kaoru to run a shoot on the outside also at a 1st tempo. She looked back, catching the back rows' attention calling for them to all approach too. They all nodded, Nozomi served the ball, Kaoru running to her side on the contact. Kyra and Miz watched closely, the opposite was out of position, the middle wasn’t moving yet the setter was still loading and adjusting her feet for the set. Miz got ready to move it wasn’t a tempo 1 it had to be a tempo 2 or 3 no one had moved yet. She set high, it was going to the outside hitter. Miz watched, first the set and then the attacker’s first step. Miz set the block, Kyra moving to close, Mizuki set the timing for them. “Up” she called, having lined up so the seam between her hands and Kyra’s would be dead center with the hitter’s shoulder, taking up as much of her shot at the court as possible. They pressed over the net, Mizuki despite being shorter than Kyra by 4 inches could still reach the same height as her on her blocks. Mizuki felt the ball hit her palms, her arms tensing as she shrugged her shoulders with the impact, forcing the ball to redirect even faster than normal straight down into the ground. She pulled back her hands from over the net as Kyra and her landed. They all looked at her waiting for the call “We Set the Roof, We Set the Roof”

“We set the roof on Fire! We Set The ROOF We Set the ROOF. We SET THE ROOF ON FIRE!” The team joined in, throwing their hands up like a block on the word roof. 10 to 11.

Nozomi went back to serve again, hard and fast the ball ricocheted off the passers arms, an overpass, Kyra wasted no time in jumping into the air, her hand connecting with the ball snapping it back down into the ground. “Ohh, Ohh!” Mizuki cried with her hand clasped over her heart as she stumbled to the center of the court fanning herself with the other hand “Oh my God Becky look at that Snap!” She said twirling as she fell to the side in a fake faint right into Nova and Akari who couldn’t stop themselves from laughing as they caught the dramatic setter.

“AWW SNAP!” The sideline yelled back laughing at the setter’s antics, the boys team joined in from above, never having seen this goofy side to the intense girl.

Tendo leaned over to Ushijima “She’s different out there, than she is at school.”

Ushijima nodded, “That she is.” Tendo leaned over him pointing to Kōshi, Ushijima followed his arm. Kōshi had a soft smile on his face, but he looked sad as he watched, like he saw something he missed, Daichi pulled the silver haired man into his side squeezing his upper arm gently.

“That’s the girl that tackled her brother down a set of stairs. Not the one who fades into the background and skirts the sides of the hall. She’s less guarded on the court. She looks comfortable, like this is how she used to being... I’m gonna go ask.” Tendo started to slink away, but stopped when Ushijima grabbed his shoulder.

“Not now Satori.. But I see it too, this is how she acts with her brother when her walls aren’t up. It's nice to see on the court. New but nice.”

“You want to know too though.” Tendo said, earning a nod from Ushijima. “I think this is what she was like before as well. She’s starting to get comfortable with us and her team.”

He nodded agreeing, a smile pulling onto his face. “I like this side of her.”

Tendo continued utilizing his astute powers of observation to size up Mizuki and how the spitfire she was had slowly started coming out of her shell. “She’s strong, but for right now I think this is her escape. This is the only place she can be herself and feel safe” Ushijima nodded agreeing with Tendo. “Hopefully she’ll tell us soon though. I have a feeling she’s going to be quite the handful, when she gets back to this as her normal mode of operation. You seem to like us wild ones.”

“You do keep things interesting.” Ushijima rolled his eyes, elbowing the redhead who just laughed as he threw an arm over Ushijima’s shoulders, as they turned back to the game.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The air was humming as Tendo bounced into the cafeteria leading the way, the rest of the boys team traipsing in behind the redhead, as soon as Tendo was in the cafeteria he was off like a rocket toward the open table that only had one occupant, Nova. Most of the girls team was at the table right next to the one Nova was at, only Kanaka, Haruhi and Miz weren’t at the table yet but the girls table was almost completely full. Tendo tossed his bag next to Nova who promptly moved it to her other side, Tendo squeezed her shoulder before moving towards the food line, his hand trailing across the girl’s shoulders. Semi smirked as he took a seat across from the girl, he was going to give Tendo hell for this. Wakatoshi was going to need to play interference, he sighed and joined Tendo in the cafeteria line, lunch was going to get interesting. “So you and Nova?” Jin asked from behind Wakatoshi, Tendo leaned over peering at the vice-captain around Wakatoshi.

“What about it?” Tendo’s guard was thrown up so fast Jin almost took a step back.

“Uh, just noticing that you two are closer than before.” Jin said, tossing his hands up in defense.

“Oh. Yea, it just happened this weekend.” Tendo said before turning away, shutting down the conversation. 

Wakatoshi gave Tendo an amused look, as he turned back towards the food line. He honestly didn’t get why Tendo was being so hostile towards the others about his new relationship, they would all be happy that Tendo had finally found a relationship that fit his eccentric nature, they all knew the man well enough to expect the unexpected when it came to him. Tendo swiped his meal card walking back over to the table not waiting for the others. “What’s got his knickers in a bunch?” Jin asked the stoic captain.

Wakatoshi shrugged. “I’m not sure, I think he’s just being reactive since this is new, I’d lay off a bit though, he’s sensitive to being over-teased.”

“We should tell that to Semi. Otherwise they are both gonna end up in a fight by the end of the day. You take Tendō and I’ll take Semi?” Wakatoshi nodded agreeing to Jin’s plan as they swiped their cards and headed back to the table Jin took a seat next to Semi and Kanaka opposite Nova and Tendo.

Miz took the seat next to Nova, Nova almost immediately diving a fork into Mizuki’s food stealing a bite. Wakatoshi took the last seat available at the tables. Sitting on the silver haired girls' other side. “So Nova, you and Tendo” Semi had smartly changed his tactics to aim at the blonde instead of his teammate.

“Yea, what about it Semi?” The girl said, her hand squeezing the redhead’s leg gently he was on his phone texting someone else his attention split between his phone and wanting to snap Semi in half.

“So are you two an item now?” Semi teased smiling at the two who were sitting closer together than to friends would normally, Tendō’s arm pressed against the blonde’s arm.

“We’re in a relationship, not that it’s any of your business Semi” Nova simpered “Why do you care? Want some advice since you can’t seem to get your crush to go out with you” she snapped back her eyes flitting down the table landing on Kaoru, for a moment before landing back on the dishwater blonde. His eyes widened his lips pursing.

Mizuki reached over, putting her hand between the two earning their attention, leaving her food open for Nova to take another bite. “Ok knock it off both of you, Semi leave them alone, you really don’t need to antagonize them, and if you really must ask we both know there is a better way.” Mizuki then turned to Nova and Tendo “And you two, there is no need to jump down his throat for a simple question. You just started this relationship yesterday and I’m sure you are going to get a number of people asking since it's so new. And Nova quit eating my food! You have your own.” Miz finished smacking the blonde’s hand away from her plate.

“But your food is better than this!” Nova complained motioning to her bento.

“Then I can bring you some tomorrow.”

“She’s right, it does smell good.” Tendo added leaning over to observe the beef stew and mashed potatoes on Mizuki’s plate.

“What’d you make?” Nova asked.

“You keep stealing it but you don’t even know what it is?” Mizuki laughed, shaking her head at Nova. “It's Beef Bourguignon,”

“Do we have anything like it in Japan?” Tendo asked, looking at the thick beef stew.

“Well if you took away the rice and added in carrots, garlic and bacon, its closest dish that you would know would probably be Hayashi rice.” She said with a shrug. “But it has a few more ingredients and takes longer to cook.” Wakatoshi’s head snapped down and to the back of Mizuki’s head. 

“Oh you got someone’s attention!” Tendo laughed pointing back to the boy who had stopped chewing and turned to look at the girl next to him. “Did you make it?” He asked, fully intending to rattle the captain more who was already frozen with his mouth full staring straight at the back of the girls head.

“Yea, Kochi, my mom and I switch off cooking dinner, we get our own breakfast and Kochi and switch off weeks packing lunch and we normally end up packing leftovers from dinner. Last night was my night for dinner, so I told Kochi to pick a country and I’d make something from wherever he said. He picked France.” 

“Is it good?” Tendo asked, Nova stole another bite off Mizuki’s plate, handing it to Tendo.

“Hey!” Miz yelled as Tendo snatched the fork taking the bite, his face lighting up.

“Yep!” Nova said, Tendo nodding as he happily chewed the stolen bite.

“Wakatoshi, you like Hayashi rice, you should try it.” Semi said, trying to not laugh at his captain's frozen face, his mouth still full.

“Ohh yea!” Tendo agreed, his mouth still full and smiling as he bounced finally swallowing “And Semi, Miracle Boy here doesn’t just like Hayashi Rice, it's his favorite food. I’ve used it many a time as a bartering tool to get him to do things he didn’t want to.” Tendo laughed. Wakatoshi swallowed hard as Mizuki swiveled her head to look at the tall man next to her. “He even ended practice early one day cause I told him I’d buy him Hayashi rice for dinner at a restaurant in town. He’s done my homework before for Hayashi rice, you Mizuki have the possibility of a brilliant tool to get Wakatoshi to do whatever you want; if he likes it.”

Mizuki rolled her eyes glaring back at Tendo, then she looked back to Wakatoshi. “Toshi-kun, would you like to try some?” Mizuki asked motioning to the plate in front of her. 

“Would you mind?” He asked, his eyes darting toward her plate. 

“Ohhh you have his attention!” Jin laughed.

Mizuki had to laugh at the boys who had switched to teasing Wakatoshi. “Not at all.” She pushed her plate towards him smacking Nova’s hand away from it again. 

He scooped up a bite of food “Thank you,” he said. He had to admit it smelled amazing, but he felt a little self conscious with the others watching him eat. But he didn’t regret that bite for a second, he melted a bit as he chewed the bite before smirking down at her, stealing another bite.

“Hey!” She laughed smacking his arm as it looped around her shoulders pulling her head and body against his chest.

He swallowed “Thank you!” He said again, her arm wrapping around him.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Jeez, if I didn’t see the amount you boys eat and food in front of you, I’d think you all were starving.”

“No, just tired of crap cafeteria food.” Wakatoshi said, squeezing her and ruffling her hair a little earning a swat.

“Aww poor Toshi-kun do you miss home cooking?”

“Hey!” He exclaimed but smiled with her gentle teasing. “But yes I do” He muttered quietly as she extracted herself from his arms but she didn’t pull away from the closeness of his body. She was shocked by how much she enjoyed the warmth and comfort of his strong and lengthy body against hers. 

Mizuki sighed looking up into the dark olive eyes. “You want me to pack you lunch tomorrow?” She asked.

“If it's that,” he asked nodding at her plate “definitely.” He said, bumping against her shoulder before turning back to his hitsumabushi.

“I can’t believe it, I’m about to say this.” She sighed smacking Nova’s hand as she shook her head. “And I’m only saying this cause I like Eel” She warned, smacking Tendo’s hand that was sneaking up around Nova’s back “Knock it off you two or I’m telling Asahi!” She snapped the two gasping and acting offended as she turned back to Toshi “Split?” She asked.

“Done.” He agreed automatically, as she pushed her plate next to his, he reached across smacking Tendo’s hand away from the plate that was now half his, “Hey hands off my food.” He said glaring half heartedly at Tendo.

“Soooo if you are packing him lunch tomorrow can I get one too?” Tendō asked his head resting on top of Nova’s “One that is twice as big so it can feed two?”

“Tendo?”

“Yea”

“Has anyone ever told you to shut up?”

“Many a time.”

“And do you?”

“Nope”

“If I agree will you?” Tendo smiled and mimicked zipping his lips and throwing the key across the cafeteria. “Then consider it done.” Mizuki challenged, smirking at the two. Tendo opened his mouth then closed it and put his hands together in front of his chest in a prayer motion and bowed over and over, shockingly he stayed completely silent for the rest of lunch. “Sweet I can make Tendo shut up if I bring him food.” Mizuki cheered, earning a laugh from the others at the table.

“Mizuki-senpai! Teach me your ways!!” Semi yelled, earning a ruckus laugh from the rest of the table.

“Hey that’s my line!” Goshiki yelled, causing more laughter to erupt around the table as the 1st year pouted at the end of the table.

Wakatoshi had been focusing on eating only instead of engaging in the conversation, focusing his efforts on the beef bourguignon that was in front of him, ignoring the hitsumabushi. “Hey!” Miz smacked his thigh with the back of her hand playfully “I said split not switch!” He shrugged begrudgingly, going back to the eel on his plate. As she stuck her tongue out at him picking up the first bite of her own lunch that she had gotten all day.

The whole cafeteria was watching the two volleyball players, there was something to be proud of with those two both going to Shiratorizawa. One a known national player the other, according to rumors spread by those who’ve walked through the gym during their practice, she was just as good as he was. Ushijima was used to eyes being on him at school. The eyes on her were new though, now after this weekend the truth was out there, it wasn’t just rumor, and was spreading like wildfire, she was just as much of a monster on the court. The whole girls team was being watched now, they were suddenly turning into a team that was just as impressive as the male counterparts. But Mizuki didn’t seem quite as comfortable with the attention as the rest of the team, the other girls were definitely getting more attention as well, he understood that. Setter wasn’t necessarily a flashy position, it didn’t get the glory of being called Ace, setter’s made the move to win the point, not the move that wins the point. She moved closer to the tall man next her letting him shield her from the prying eyes, he let her lean against him as she hid from the eyes around them. He couldn’t stop the smile that crossed his lips as she pressed against him using him as a shield from the rest of the cafeteria. The rest of the team caught on to his reaction to her body language quickly though realizing that Mizuki was not used to this attention and was not comfortable with people she didn’t know approaching her. The look shared by both teams said the same thing, they were going to have to keep the school’s many volleyball fans at a bit of a distance from the setter until she was comfortable. He already saw the school newspaper shifting restlessly as they peered over at the table, the editor was ruthless in going after stories and based on the look in his eye he thought he had found his next front page.

Wakatoshi was glad that they only had a study period after lunch with the others in his class since the math teacher was out sick, they had switched class to a study hall they could take in the classroom or in the library. Jin, Tendo, Wakatoshi and Mizuki were seated at a table in the back of the library. “Tendo, do you have your notes from history this morning?”

“Yea, I do why?” Tendo teased the vice-captain full well knowing he’d been out of class getting checked for a concussion by the school nurse, the trip had been inflicted by Tendo when he’d been attempting a jump serve.

“Well it's the least you could do after being the reason for my trip.” Jin snapped back.

“Me? Jin you should know better than to walk in front of me when I’m jump serving, we all know I can’t”

“Then why were you?” 

“I do want to get better, and Miracle boy here was trying to help.”

“Not that it did anything” Ushijima grumbled. 

“No? Not a coach Toshi-kun?” Miz laughed pushing against his shoulder, he buckled under her hand without a fight as she teased him.  
“Not really.”

“He’s put in hard work, but volleyball also is as natural as breathing to him, his dad played. It's hard for someone to explain something that comes as naturally as breathing to another.” Tendo said, giving Wakatoshi the benefit of the doubt.

“Coaching isn’t easy, it takes time and patience and a lot of deductive power based purely on your observational skills.” Mizuki said.

“What she means is, he can’t help but she could.” Jin laughed.

“She’s better suited for it,” Wakatoshi agreed, poking her side causing her to swat at him, she had relaxed considerably now that she wasn’t in a crowded area and was around people she felt comfortable with.

“What makes you say that?” Jin laughed as Wakatoshi blocked one hand going for his bicep but wasn’t fast enough to stop the girl's other hand that poked him in the back of his ribcage.

“She’s a setter, those are the skill sets that make them effective.” he grabbed her finger stopping one of her attacks but wasn’t prepared for the three quick pokes under his arm on his ribs that made him jump and let go as they sent ticklish zaps through his torso immediately causing him to recoil. 

She relaxed as they pushed and poked eachother as they studied, only engaging with the comfortable physical banter every few minutes, neither wanting to stop acknowledging the other even if it was only in the play fight. Tendo rolled his eyes at the two who were oblivious to their own sappy flirting. “Only a matter of time,” he sighed under his breath as Jin let out a small chuckled as he nodded agreeing with the red head. 

They were all deep into their work when another joined the table. A boy plopped down next to Mizuki scaring the newly relaxed girl, Tendo glanced up at Mizuki as she jumped sideways away from the intruding boy. Tendo snorted into laughter as she landed half off her chair half on Ushijima, her knees rocketing up off the floor banging loudly into the table; the laughter died in his throat almost as soon as it started as he saw her eyes wide and shoulders tense as he realized she was fighting a panic attack from the scare. Wakatoshi already had a strong arm between her and the school paper reporter who had crashed their study session. “Fukuro-kun you should know better than to sneak up on people.” Tendo’s voice had turned icy as he beat Wakatoshi in responding to the obviously unwanted visitor.

The boy just laughed, oblivious to Mizuki’s discomfort, “I just wanted to get an interview set up with our newest volleyball star.” The wirey boy said waving Tendo off dismissively. Wakatoshi put his other hand on her back, his eyes turning to glare at their overzealous classmate. Fukuro was not known to be the most moral reporter on the paper, his writing style was much more on the tabloid side than from a perspective of facts, a side of him Tendo had been burned by in the past. “I have a few sources at her old school already, my cousin plays for the Karasuno girls team, and from what their team has told me I’d love to get her story, especially this relationship.” The boy rambled in a charlatan’s game of pretending to look out for her best interest. Mizuki tensed, her hand white knuckling into the taller boy’s shirt as she pressed away from the reporter. 

“I’m not sure what you’ve heard Fukuro, but this isn’t the time.” Wakatoshi stated his thumb rubbing her back where she had pressed back into his hand.

“Oh already getting a protective group, Aiko said that would happen,” He said, smirking as if this gave him some sort of upper hand. “Well I can either, print what I already have or I can get an interview from her, but either way it will be the talk of the school, the reason Karasuno’s girl’s team went out in the first round, now our supposed superstar girl. That’s not even getting into the reason she moved back after all these years.” Fukuro’s voice was smug. His smile was so sweet it was disturbing especially paired with the eyes that looked like they had fallen on the perfect prey.

“Fine,” Mizuki huffed, realizing that this was the only way to have any say in what was put out, she could only hope that what she told him he would believe. She remembered that the 3-E class home room teacher was the supervisor for the school paper, “How about Wednesday in Mori-senpai's classroom? I’ve been meaning to drop a book off to her that I borrowed a month ago.” She said, backing the reporter into a corner with her plan. He nodded not quite realizing yet that, she had him in checkmate, he’d figure it out soon enough though. 

“Sounds good I’ll see you then.” He said getting up and walking away from the table leaving them to study.

“Why did you agree to that?” Tendo asked, looking at her like she had an extra head. “Fukuro is better suited to a tabloid than an actual new story, it doesn’t matter what you say he’ll write whatever he wants.”

“That’s why we are doing it in Mori-senpai’s room, she is the supervisor for the paper, and the book she leant me, it was one that she gave me after a talk we had about certain things that have happened before I got here, she knows what is true and what isn’t. He’s backed himself into a corner, he just doesn’t know it yet.” Mizuki said with a shrug.

Jin nodded to her “Impressive, I always forget Setter’s are who they are on the court cause they are calculating and that the skill set for that is very applicable off the court too.” 

“Yea but now he has 2 days to think of questions.” Tendo countered.

“And I have my own sources at Karasuno and I already have a pretty good idea of what he has. If anything it gives me time to prepare for what he’s going to dig up,”

“Do you need someone to go with you?” Wakatoshi asked.

“No, that’s why I picked Mori-senpai’s classroom, built in interference system.” Mizuki said, pulling out her phone to text her brother and Nova. 

Tendo didn’t like the idea of her going in alone, and made his disapproval of the plan clear on his face. “At least keep your phone out so we can keep tabs on you, he’s on his last legs with the paper, he doesn’t know it but the editor is in my art class and hates that whatever he writes to the paper never seems to be what was actually the truth, I’ll give Yamada-san a heads up that he’s picked you as his next story.”

“You could have started with that Satori” Wakatoshi laughed, “I think that would have saved us a lot of worry.”

“Well I only just remembered, I’d have said something earlier but I have art in 15 minutes and that reminded me.” Tendo replied sheepishly causing the others at the table to laugh at his forgetfulness.

“What do you guys have next?” Jin asked, starting to pack up his bag.

“Art” Tendo said, smirking as he answered, Jin smacking him with a packet as he put it in his bag for his smart-ass remark.

“Physics.” Wakatoshi said, starting to pack up as well. 

“I have a free period, but Nova wanted to meet up in the gym to practice so that’s where I’m heading today, normally I’d stay in the library.” Mizuki said, with a shrug. “What about you Jin?”

“I have Psychology.” He said, continuing to pack his bag. 

“Well I guess I’ll see you three in the gym later than.” Miz said scooping up her books, as her phone rang. She answered it, starting her conversation in English telling them that it was a more private matter, and she was either talking to Nova or her brother. “Hi Ko-cha,” she waved to them as she walked out turning towards the gym. The others finished packing their bags before departing as well.

After his class got out early Ushijima walked into the gym, he wasn’t shocked by the music already playing from the speakers, Mizuki and Nova were peppering back and forth. Nova was bouncing up to reset after each contact dancing in the air causing Mizuki to laugh, he could tell they were goofing around just as much as they were being serious, it looked like Miz was messing with angles, changing the angles of her shoulders, hips and platform, each time attempting to not move her feet more than absolutely needed to gauge and suss out how the angle worked. He also had a feeling she was doing it because she didn’t want to move around too much before practice. He couldn’t help but laugh at some of the ridiculous passes andsets she was pulling off, if the ball didn’t come out with the control it did he’d have thought her movements to be lucky floundering. He realized just how little Miz was trying to move when instead of hoping forward the three feet to get a ball Nova had passed short she leaned over falling forward. She passed the ball accurately back to Nova before hitting the floor in a pushup that slowed her impact with the floor. Nova caught the ball laughing hysterically at the girl who was now lying face first on the ground. “Well that was graceful.” She cackled.

“Oh shove off Nova” Miz laughed, crawling off the floor and back to standing. The girls had stamped their ticket to the qualifiers that last weekend they deserved to mess around a bit. Nova and Mizuki had both played key parts in the wins, Mizuki had stood out but the others had truly shone as well, her abilities bringing out the all star qualities of her teammates, the mark of a great setter, she knew when to fade into the background. The school had been raving about Yukima, Zoya and Kanaka more than Mizuki, which showed just how little some of them understood the game. From the conversations he heard throughout the day he wondered if they had watched the same game he did. But what was even better was that the other’s in the school were starting to realize that the girls team was strong and held the potential to go to nationals as well.

Wakatoshi looked at the shirt Mizuki was wearing, it wasn’t a practice shirt from Shiratorizawa. It was black and red, it had her last name and number on it, it was a fitted shirt but it wasn’t tight. She turned and he saw the front, USA Volleyball and on the sleeve he caught sight of the 20U. He smiled, it didn’t shock him, of course she would be at a high level even in the states. It explained just why she was able to challenge him the way she could, he was no longer the only player who was at the international level in the gym. He had to smile a bit to himself, he didn’t have to choose with her, with every other girl in the school it always came down to a choice, them or volleyball. He’d always chosen volleyball, but with Miz there was no choice cause she was on the same path as he was and he could hang out with her and play at the same time.

“Hey Ushiwaka!” Nova yelled, as she spun the ball in her hand. “Mizuki was just helping me with passing angles.”

“She’s a good person to help with that.” He said, stopping behind Mizuki.

“She is, isn’t she.” Nova laughed “but I wouldn’t expect anything less from the future USA Setter.” 

“Not gonna play for your home country?” He asked, only the smirk quirked across his lips gave away that he was joking. She was about to turn to answer when Nova spoke.

“She basically already has the starter position for the 2016 games.” Nova laughed, tossing the ball at Mizuki’s head who dodged it glaring at the fiery Libero, letting it fly across the room. Nova huffed rolling her eyes as she ran after it.

“Honestly, I haven’t decided yet, Japan hasn’t approached me either so for now that’s my only option currently ” Mizuki said, sighing as she turned around as her mouth pulled into line, she didn’t meet his eyes, she shrugged. He saw the turmoil in her face, she was conflicted about something, she wore her emotions on her sleeve when she was off the court.

Even though he’d only been attempting to tease her he knew he’d struck a sensitive chord and brought up things that Fukuro had already stirred up earlier. He placed a hand on her shoulder, he’d seen that face a few times now, and twice in the last 3 hours, she was always really quiet about her time living in America. “When you’re ready, I hope you can trust me with those stories.” He said quietly, she nodded looking at his large hand resting on her shoulder, smiling up at him knowing she wasn’t going to be pushed on it.

“Thank you.” She stepped into his side “That means a lot Toshi.” Her hand went to his waist, as her head bumped into the shoulder of the arm that had wrapped around the back of her shoulders. He relaxed squeezing her shoulders gently, feeling her grasp his waist a little firmer pulling herself closer, a side effect he wasn’t going to complain about.

“Wakatoshi!” Tendo yelled, running through the door, his arms waving wildly, skidding to a halt, suddenly seeing Mizuki resting against his chest. “Oh, sorry, is this a bad time?”

“No, you’re fine Tendo” Mizuki said, stepping back, he couldn’t tell if she had squeezed his side before pulling away or not. “What is it?”

“I got the cabin!” He yelled “My parents said we could use it this year!” Tendo crowed, bouncing again. 

“Where are you guys going?” She asked.

“Wait, the girls haven’t told you?” Tendo stopped his jumping to look at her.

“Told me what exactly? That you’re nuts? I already knew that.” She smiled sticking her tongue out at the redhead as he squawked with indignation. “Now what should I know.”

“Well every year after the qualifiers for both teams go on a weekend trip. Basically it's a time we all get to relax and hangout outside of school. Bond, watch movies, cook, throw things at Jin, and the like.” Tendo laughed. “This year I got my aunt’s vacation cabin again, so it is bound to be fun, hiking, there is a hot tub, a fun little night market, inner tubing slopes that should be open by then, an ice-skating rink and a paintball place I want to try out this year! I’m surprised the girls haven’t mentioned it yet, they always end up in some sort of trouble.” Mizuki’s eyes flashed at the mention of paintball.

“I’m sure they will, especially now that we have a place.” She smiled, “It sounds like a fun time though.”

The others started to file in from class. “Hey Miz! Serve a few at me will you? I wanna try that triangle thing you were talking about!” Nova yelled she threw the ball over the net to her.

“You got it Nova!” She called throwing the ball cart to the setter’s spot, “Remember watch the ball all the way into your platform, hips toward me, shoulders towards the cart, platform angled toward the top of the net, the passes should go over the net about a foot above where section 6 and 7 meet! And remember, right is good, left is better.” 

Tendo tilted his head looking between Miz and his girlfriend. “Wait, what are you guys doing?”

“She’s teaching her the passing techniques from Gold Medal Squared,” Wakatoshi said, watching her serve, before she’d ran up to the net, chatting with Nova about the result.

“What’s that?” Shirabu asked, having arrived in the gym and walked over to see his teammates who were already there.

“It's a set of philosophies and techniques that are used all the way up to the national and international level in volleyball. When used effectively it can produce some of the incredibly consistent results.” Wakatoshi explained, watching her chat at the net with the bouncy blonde haired Libero. 

“Hmm.” Shirabu said. “Does it have setting techniques too?”

“Yes, that’s what Mizuki uses, it's a significant factor in her ability to run her court the way she does.” Wakatoshi said, leading the others watching them away to get changed for practice.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have questions about the game or want help with game strategy, plays or positions please let me know I've coached all levels and I know the game backwards and forwards and I'd love to beta if you have a Haikuu story but need some help. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of the story.


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